Family
by ResidentOfCabin6
Summary: Being a legacy doesn't make growing up any easier, a lesson that the children of the Seven have had to learn time and time again as they grow up faced with challenges like learning to control their powers, mastering the use of weapons and partaking in camp life all while maintaining their educations. (One-shot's about the Seven's children growing up in New Athens and New Rome.)
1. Where Do Babies Come From?

**Hello! And welcome to my new story, Family! This is a series of one shots about the families of the seven. I've only got a few ideas about what to write, though, so suggestions would be great! Enjoy! Warning: these chapters are in no particular order.**

**-ROC6**

**Disclaimer: This goes for all chapters. I won nothing you recognize, sadly, and all credit goes to Rick Riordan.**

Annabeth sat on the couch, happy that she finally had some time to herself. All day it had been run here, run there. Thank goodness Leo was able to watch Emmy and Jacob today. Annabeth reached towards the coffee table to pick up one of her books when Emmy wandered over. Annabeth sighed, but Emmy's in kindergarten now, and every day she comes home with a new story.

"Hey Emmy, how was your day?"

"Good," the little girl responded, surprising her mother. Normally the little girl would've jumped right into a story at the question.

After a pause, Emmy asked, "Mommy? Where do babies come from?"

She'd been hoping that this question would stay away for a few more years. Either way, Annabeth tells Emmy the response her and Percy had come up with, "Well, Emmy, the little babies live in castles with everything they could ever want, except for one thing. There's no one there to love them. So they live sadly in the castles waiting until the day a fairy comes to them and tells them a family wants them and whisks them into our world."

Emmy stared at her mother with big green eyes before saying, "Really? Uncle Leo says that babies happen when grown ups do some weird stuff."

Gasping at the response, Annabeth asked her daughter, "Oh? What kind of stuff?"

**-()-()-()-()-()-**

A few minutes later, little Emmy finishes up her story, "Then the baby grows inside of the mommy, making her do weird stuff like cry a lot or eat mayonnaise on ice cream. Then, once the baby has tortured the mommy for nine months, it's water bed breaks and it gets pooped!"

Emmy waited patiently for her mother to respond.

"Yes, Emmy, everything Leo told you is true, just don't go telling your brother, or anyone else for that matter without my permission, okay?"

The young blonde nodded enthusiastically at her mother, and went to go find her book. Annabeth sighed and went over to the Iris Messaging station and called someone she needed to talk to.

**-()-()-()-()-()-**

Leo was having pretty good day. He watched Emmy and Jacob for a little while, and man, those kids are awesome! Emmy, though, well, she's very curious, like her mother. So, when Jacob asked why Calypso looked fat, and Leo told him she was having a baby, Emmy immediately asked how that happens. He didn't know what else to do, so she told her how it works. Now that their mother picked them up, he could safely work in his forge.

Leo looked down at the technology he'd been working on, and shoved it aside, bored. He glanced around, and noticed an Iris Message being connected.

The instant the figure calling him appeared, Leo gulped. it's been awhile since he saw those stormy gray eyes as mad as they were.

Her voice yells at him, "LEO VALDEZ!"

Leo gulped, _oh crap_.


	2. Baby Valdez

**Hello everyone! this is the one shot I used for "The Valdez Family" and I wanted to add it to this collection, so I hope that those of you that haven't read it before enjoy it! Again, I'm looking for suggestions for more one shots to add to this story.**

**\- ROC6**

Leo stared down at the wrinkly, red, humanoid shape in his arms with a mixture of emotions. Amazement, for one. He and Calypso made this… Thing together. Their little girl. Another thing he felt was disgusted. Ouch, that didn't sound good. It's just, he always found babies ugly, but newborns are, like ten times uglier on the baby ugly scale. Out of the seven, he was the last one to have a child, but that's fine by him. He had to readjust Calypso to the world, which was hard enough, but with kids… No. Just no. Calypso looks at him from the hospital bed, watching carefully to make sure he doesn't do something stupid to her baby. She frowns in disapproval as Leo lights his finger on fire and waves it in front of the baby.

The baby looks like it's watching the flame, but can babies even see? Either way, the baby is fascinated with the mysterious heat. Suddenly, the baby lights on fire. Therefore, Leo lights on fire. Soon the hospital room lights on fire. Then the whole hospital.

Leo walks out through the burning hospital whispering to the baby,"Hey Hot Stuff. Or should it be Super Sized McShizzle Jr.? Or Leo Jr.? Oh, I know, Hot stuff Jr.!"

Meanwhile, the Jacksons are just arriving in their beat up blue Jeep out front of the burning hospital. They see a flaming Leo and child and Percy starts to pull away muttering something about them looking busy, and his wife yells at him to go help put out the fire. Annabeth sighs, _Di Immortales, why couldn't the new Valdez have Calypso's powers?_ Sure, this is why they had the Jacksons meet them there instead of meeting back at the Valdez residence like the rest of the seven, but Annabeth had hoped that their fear was unfounded. She turns around and looks at the pair of children in the backseat that have been pelting her with water encased Cheerios the whole ride. Two year old Emily, nicknamed Emmy, a little girl with blond curls, sea green eyes, and water powers smiles innocently at her. Curse it, the girl seems to have gotten the Athena-ness too. Athena-ness, gods Annabeth has been spending too much time around Percy. The other one, Jacob, an exact replica of Percy, except instead of having the body of an adult he actually looks like a one year old, just laughs and sends another Cheerio at her face.

"You two be good," Annabeth says before climbing out of and locking the car wondering why she even bothers.

She turns around and, thank the gods, Percy has put out the hospital and the baby, but Leo is nowhere to be seen.

"Where is Leo?" Annabeth asks, exasperated.

"He went to go get Calypso. Duh," Percy so kindly explains, then looks at the little swaddled bundle in his arms,"Meet Hot Stuff Jr., though honestly I would've called her Pearl."

Annabeth just stares at him, noting that the baby girl looks exactly like Calypso, if Calypso came in Latino elf edition,"That's actually a good name. Why didn't you suggest that when Emmy was born?"

"Her name is Bubbles, and because she seemed so much like an Ariel."

"Her name is Emmy, and if she seems so much like an Ariel, then why do you call her Bubbles?"

"Because that was then. Now, she seems like a Bubbles."

Annabeth gives up and looks at the hospital just in time to see Leo carrying Calypso bridal style out of the doors. It's amazing that the hospital is relatively unscathed. It's also hilarious, because Leo is still super scrawny at 24. Annabeth walks over and pulls the baby out of Percy's arms and walks over to Calypso, trusting her not to kill it or try to teach it to speak fish. She doesn't hand it to Mrs. Valdez yet, as she is struggling to escape Leo, whom is saying he'll only let her down in return for a Sharpie. Annabeth watches, amazed, as the former goddess is somehow unable to escape from the arms of her ridiculously scrawny husband. Annabeth is about to tell Calypso to definitely not give Leo the Sharpie, just as she does exactly that. Leo promptly drops Calypso and pulls 'Hot Stuff Jr.' out of Annabeth's arms and writes the baby's 'name' on it's arm.

"Leo Valdez! We are not naming our baby Hot Stuff Jr!" Calypso yells at him.

"Well do you have a better idea?" Leo asks as he skips over, catching Calypso by surprise and writing _TEAM LEO_ on her forehead.

"Yes! We talked about this. We said if it's a girl her name is Rose. Therefore that is her name. Also, that's what I had them write on her birth certificate. Get away!" Calypso swats at Leo.

Annabeth decides to let the couple work the name out themselves and turns around only to see the street and her car flooded. She sighs, already planning on how to install more drains, as apparently her children managed to overload the one they already have. She watches as Jacob floats into the driver's seat, baby seat and all, and Emmy pounds furiously on the window. She lets them out of the car, getting soaked in the process, and sits both Emmy and Jacob in the grass. She pulls out her cell phone, a special version designed by the man throwing a hissy fit in the grass because he doesn't get to choose the baby's name. She scrolls through her contacts until she finds the one she's looking for.

Sally Jackson picks up her phone, seeing as it's Annabeth again.

"Hello?"

"Hey Sally, could you come to the nearest hospital?"

"What? Why? Is someone hurt?"

"No," Sally can hear Annabeth sigh,"Your grandchildren flooded the car, again, and we need transportation to the Valdez's place so could y-"

Annabeth cuts off, and Sally can hear something exploding in the background.

A moment later Annabeth comes back,"Sorry about that. Can you come? And bring the minivan, as you need to transport me, you, three children and the Valdez's."

Sally chuckles,"Of course, I'll be there soon."

Annabeth sighs. That was embarrassing, as it's the third time this week. She turns to Percy, about to make a comment about training their children to use their powers responsibly, only to discover the man in question pouting and arguing with a one year old.

"You- You killed Kelp. She was my mermaid. You killed Kelp. With a sea serpent. You killed Kelp…"

Annabeth glares at Percy and he shrinks away from her,"Percy, get over it, it was an abstract shape made from water."

Annabeth then calls some people to tow the car to her house so that the engine can safely dry out. Soon, Sally's minivan pulls up and Annabeth goes over to retrieve the Valdez's. She picks up baby Rose, who was lying forgotten on the grass because her parent's argument somehow turned into a makeout session. Annabeth walks with the red faced couple back to the car, where Sally has Percy sitting between Jacob and Emmy in the back seat. Percy is telling them the amazing adventures of Rainbow the fish pony, though today he can't seem to decide whether or not to call Jacob Batman or Coral, the two names Percy wanted to give him. Sally climbs in the driver's seat as Leo and Calypso argue about who gets to hold Rose. Annabeth climbs in the passenger seat as Calypso takes Rose and sits next to Leo in the middle row.

Within seconds after the car starts moving, though, Rose switches laps as she nearly sets her mother's clothes on fire. Leo holds her and she starts to cry, causing Jacob to cry, causing Emmy to cry. Annabeth sits in the car, or as she is currently thinking of it, a car filled with pudgy monsters, wondering again why she and Percy thought it would be a good idea to have children.


	3. The Aquarium

**Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay, but I couldn't come up with anything, so, HINT HINT, I need suggestions. Also, don't worry for those that want to see more than Percabeth, the next chapter will be children of Jiper, but after that I have no ideas, so suggestions wanted!**

**-ROC6**

_May 27th, 12 years after defeating Gaea_

Annabeth hugged her two beloved children goodbye, as she does every morning before work. Except, this isn't any morning. It's a Saturday, and Annabeth has an important meeting with a business considering hiring her company for a very important job. Because it's a Saturday, there's no school for Emmy, and no preschool for Jacob. So Percy gets to babysit.

Percy's pretty responsible most of the time, but there are some things that he shouldn't do. So, as she hugged her daughter goodbye, she whispered in her ear, "Emmy, make sure your father stays away from the aquarium."

And with that, Annabeth walked out the door, hoping that her husband wouldn't do anything stupid.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Six year old Emmy and four year old Jacob were arguing about whether they should watch Spongebob or the History Channel when their father walked over.

"Hey guys, who wants to go to the aquarium?" He asked like an excited kid.

Jacob nodded furiously right away, "Aquawium! Aquawium!"

Emmy on the other hand had stopped to think about it. Her mother's voice rang in her head, _Make sure your father stays away from the aquarium…_

The young girl nodded enthusiastically, "Sure Daddy, let's go!"

Percy's face lit up when both of his children agreed to go, he was afraid Annabeth had told them not to, "Well, come on then! To the Batmobile!"

Percy picked up Jacob and flew him out of the apartment like an airplane, Emmy trailing behind them, and they ran together towards the blue Jeep Percy always drives.

They arrived a few minutes later at the Brooklyn aquarium, and Percy paid all of their entry fees. They walked inside, breathing in the smell of the sea, and the whole family felt right at home. They wandered the exhibits for awhile, talking to the sea creatures and pretty much just having a good time. None of them were really paying attention to each other, so when they all were separated, neither of the children noticed, and Percy didn't notice for a good long while either.

An hour or two had passed when Annabeth called saying she was on her way home, and that she'd be there in about a half an hour, maybe longer if she stops for groceries. Percy hung up and went to grab Emmy and Jacob's hands, only to discover that the two children weren't there. Percy looked around, panicking, and noticed a large crowd had formed by the dolphin tank. So, like any concerned parent, he went to investigate.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Emmy loved the dolphins. It was so cool how the grown ups could get them to jump and do tricks, especially for mortals! She went to the seating area for shows after pushing through a closed door with some writing on it, but none of the trainers were there. In fact, no one else was even in the room. The rope surrounding the pool was left unguarded, so Emmy ducked underneath of it, which wasn't hard for a six year old, and walked silently to the edge of the pool.

All of the dolphins, sensing her presence, swam to the edge she was standing by and cheerily greeted her, _Hello Princess! Tell the Lord hi, okay?_

One brave dolphin even offered her a ride. So she couldn't talk to horses. She didn't care, she thought talking to fish was cooler. Happy to be with the friendly mammals, she jumped into the pool, willing herself to stay dry, and was escorted around the dolphin tank by it's half a dozen occupants. Once the tour was over, Emmy hopped off of her dolphin and willed herself to rocket around the tank, not noticing the crowd she'd already attracted outside of the tank. Once she'd gone around a few laps and was certifiably dizzy, she sank slowly to the bottom of the tank where she began to entertain herself by playing make believe with the dolphins. It was awesome, but every so often she'd look through the crowd for a familiar black haired man. Mommy said to keep him out of trouble.

A little while later, she finally saw him and waved hello. She gave him a gap toothed grin and he gave her his "I-want-to-be-mad-at-you-but-you're-so-darn-cute" glare. She smirked.

The dolphin that went off to greet Daddy came back after a moment, _Lord says to get out of our tank immediately. It's been a pleasure playing with you, Princess._

Emmy sighed, of course he would. And, unfortunately for her, he held more authority with aquatic creatures. She willed herself to the top of the tank, hopped out, and started wandering around the aquarium.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Jacob was happily wandering through the aquarium. The occasional guard would ask him where his parents were and he'd respond eagerly with a 'The spider crab wants more food' or 'The stingray says his name is Eeesiel, not Blue Spotted.' The guard, or any other adults that were nearby, would look at him in confusion before their eyes glassed over and they summed it up to childhood delusions.

Every so often, Jacob would wander by the dolphin tank where he knew his sister was playing. A couple times, he bumped into other people, but they didn't think much of it.

At one point he was so engrossed in his conversation with the seahorses that he didn't notice he bumped into someone, until that someone picked him up and exclaimed, "Jacob, where have you been, I've been searching the whole aquarium for you!"

Jacob shrugged, and his Daddy put him down, "Jacob, stay with me, okay?"

Jacob nodded, and his Dad started looking for Emmy, muttering about how he needed to beat Annabeth home. At one point they passed a shark tank, and the big sharks were smiling at him, so Jacob stopped to say hello. They even gave him instructions on how to climb in their tank, and soon he was playing tag and hide and go seek with the big white sharks, all the while enjoying their calls of _Prince! Play with me!_

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Percy finally found Emmy talking to the sea horses, honestly, though, what is it with his children and sea horses? They aren't even horses! Percy grabbed Emmy's hand and was about to start pulling her towards the exit when two things happened. One, he noticed Jacob wasn't there when he went to pick him up, and two, a voice came on over the aquarium loudspeaker.

"Excuse me, but do we have anyone here by the name of Percy Jackson? We found your son. Meet us by the information desk."

Percy sighed, but he pulled Emmy to the information desk by the entrance, careful not to let her wander off like he did Jacob. When he got there, a guard pulled Jacob out from behind the desk.

"Are you Percy Jackson?" The man asked, and continued when Percy nodded, "Is this your kid?"

Percy looked away guiltily, "Yes."

The man sighed, "Please keep him under control, we found him swimming in the Great White Shark Exhibit. One of the tried to eat him-"

"Nuh uh!" Jacob cut in, "We were playing hide and seek and he said I could hide in his mouth!"

Sighing as if this wasn't the first time Jacob said that, the guard continued, "Sir, the board requests that you leave immediately and don't return."

Percy nodded and picked up Jacob, being careful to escort his whole family safely to the car. After a quick drive, the Jacksons arrived safely in their house, and Percy pushed his two children onto the couch and sat down in between them just as the garage door opened.

Annabeth walked in, looking to be in a fairly good mood and carrying some groceries. When she saw her family sitting on the couch, she walked over.

"Hey guys, what did you do all day?" She asked casually.

Jacob opened his mouth and Percy clamped a hand over it, "Oh, nothing much, we just kind of hung out.

His wife, examined him critically, before saying, "Alright. I'm just going to turn on the news real quick."

She turned the TV on and switched the channel from Bubble Guppies, much to the dismay of her children.

When she switched to the news channel, a picture taken of Percy, Emmy and Jacob at the aquarium filled the screen, and a female news anchor's voice could be heard saying, "-ere's the family that was wreaking havoc today at the Brooklyn aquarium."

Immediately, Annabeth switched off the TV, "Perseus Jackson! You got yourself banned from another aquarium?"

Percy nodded sheepishly as he stood up and walked over to his wife.

"What am I going to do with you, Seaweed Brain?" She muttered to him, before she leaned in and kissed him, ignoring the calls of 'gross' and 'cooties!' from her children.


	4. The Second Tuesday of the Month

**I'm glad I was able to get this up today. I hope you guys like this one shot, and please leave me some suggestions, reviews and PMs appreciated.**

**\- ROC6**

_April 30th, 20 years after defeating Gaea_

"Ugh, Mom and Dad are probably fighting again," Aiden commented to his friend as he walked home from school.

Jacob looked at him curiously, "How would you know that?"

"It's the second Tuesday of the month," Aiden stated in a tone of voice that screamed 'Duh!'

The black haired boy was puzzled, "And that's relevant how?"

Brushing a golden lock behind his ear, Aiden explained, "Mom and Dad always fight on the second Tuesday of the month."

"That's just weird, dude," Jacob finally decided to reply, after a couple of slow blinks of his green eyes.

"Yeah, well, I don't expect you to understand. Your parents are the famous Percabeth, the perfect couple, I bet they never fight," Aiden commented, his kaleidoscope eyes flashing with annoyance that his friend would dare call his parents weird.

Jacob looked disgruntled, "Of course they do! For example, one of my earliest memories is of Mom yelling at Dad for taking us to the aquarium aft-"

A loud feminine scream emitted from the Grace residence that the pair of boys were rapidly approaching, cutting Jacob off mid sentence. The boys looked at each other before Aiden took off running to prevent his parents from attempting to kill each other. Again.

Jacob watched his friend run off to deal with his family issues, not noticing his sister, who had been walking a couple yards behind them, had moved so she was walking next to him.

"Hey Jacob!" she called, startling him, "Two drachmas says that was Jason."

Jacob grinned at the blonde eighth grader, "You're on."

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

The scene in the kitchen made Aiden glad his sister Belle was still at cheerleading practice, much to his mother's dismay and grandmother's delight. He found his mother pinning his father to the floor, holding a razor to his head and forcibly giving him a buzz cut.

His mother noticed his presence in the room, and turned to look at him, her kaleidoscope eyes gleaming maniacally, "Hello Aiden, apologies for your father's screams. How was school?"

Aiden froze under his mother's unnerving gaze, "I- I think that I'll be going now."

"Argh, just hold still!" She yelled at Aiden's father, before looking at her son pityingly, "Yes, I feel it would be best if you didn't have to see your father like this."

Running out of the room, Aiden was wondering how it was possible that his immature parents could have possibly saved the world.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Half an hour later, Jason and Piper walked out of the kitchen, hand in hand, and greeted their son, who was playing Call of Demigods with Jacob, communicating via video chat. Aiden paused the game and turned around to look at them - and fell off of his chair, to Jacob's delight. Jacob started cackling, his mother smirked, his father looked at him in confusion, and he himself was struggling to untangle himself from the mass of wires he tumbled into.

When he finally succeeded, he sat upright and looked at his father, shocked, "Dad! What happened to your hair!"

Jason looked embarrassed, and Piper smirked even more, causing Percy and Jacob to laugh even harder. Percy had wandered over to see what was so funny when he heard his son laughing like a madman and accidentally exploding faucets. When he saw the situation he immediately had joined in with his son.

"I gave him a buzz cut!" Piper exclaimed happily, still smirking her head off.

"Oh- My- Gods- Piper! Thats- brilliant!" Percy exclaimed between laughs.

Aiden was still looking at his father in shock, "So… Dad. Anything you want to say to me?"

"Oh, yeah, great job in school son!" His father responded kindly.

"Seriously?" Aiden's mouth dropped open, "Nothing else to say? No comments on how lame my hair is?"

"Hades, no. I'm not that shallow," Jason stated and walked out of the room.

Suddenly, Annabeth's voice filled the room, "Sorry, Aiden and Piper, but these two Seaweed Brains have to go, the have to go fix the faucets."

She hung up the video chat, but not before Percy and Jacob exclaimed, "Hey!"

The last image seen on the chat was Jacob diving for the phone, but Aiden ignored it, instead turning to his mother, "Who was that and what have you done with Dad?"

Piper smiled kindly at him, "Aiden, that was your father, the version I fell in love with as a teenager."

"But," Aiden commented, "Don't you still love Dad?"

"Of course I do sweetie, he's just a lot more annoying now that some of Jupiter's genes have kicked in more."

Thunder rumbled, and the mother and son laughed, before piper commented, "If only we could charmspeak him to keep his hair that short."

"Yeah."

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

An hour later, Aiden's twin walked through the door.

"Hey Belle!"

"Oh my gods, Dad! What happened to your hair!"


	5. But I Don't Like Bears

**I am so so sorry for not updating in so long! I have this thing called a life and it was catching up with me. School sports just started, and I just finished my one story that had been stressing me out, and I got a bit of flaming on here, and I had to bribe the readers to review on another story, so I took a break, then forgot to come back. Sorry! I hope you guys like this one shot, I thought it would be a cute little thing to write. Dunno why, but I find Theo absolutely adorable, so meh. Hope you likey and suggestions welcome!**

**To: Kristen Green (Guest)**

**Thank you for the plea, it snapped me out of my... I don't know what to call it... Slump, I guess? Either way, thanks for the reivew, and if I take that long to update again, piece of advice, do that again, okay? Also, thanks for the ideas, I might use some.**

**\- ROC6**

_**May 17th, 13 years after defeating Gaea**_

Theodore Zhang had always liked his nickname Teddy. Except for today. Today they had learned about bears in school, and he decided he didn't like bears.

When his mother saw his normally jolly face downcast and sullen, she asked him gently, "Teddy, what's wrong?"

To her surprise, at the affectionate term he burst into tears, sobbing loudly, "Don't call me that! You're mean!"

Frank, whom had been waiting at the corner with his wife as an elephant, Teddy's favorite animal, turned into a pony the perfect size for his son, and waited for his wife to calm Teddy down. Hazel tried and tried, but every time she called him Teddy, he burst into tears. Again. Eventually she looked at Frank, who got the message and switched back to human form. He scooped up the crying child, and carried him home, his wife following behind.

Once they got home, they sat the kindergartener down in the kitchen, and Hazel took the lead trying to figure out what's wrong.

"Theodore, why don't you want to be called Teddy?" She asked hesitantly, hoping her hiccuping child wouldn't start bawling his eyes out again.

"W-hic-we were lear-hic-ning about be-hic-bears in school. I-hic-I don't li-hic like bears!" Teddy stated through his hiccups.

Hazel was about to console her son, but he must have been thinking really hard about bears because he accidentally turned himself into one, something he didn't have complete control over yet. She sighed, then looked at her husband with a look saying, "It's your family gift, you figure out how to fix this."

Frank sighed and turned into a bear as Hazel walked out of the kitchen to wait, thinking about the time Teddy couldn't figure out how to turn human after he accidentally made himself a puppy and hoping he wasn't stuck as a bear. She went to grab Theo the teddy bear, Teddy's favorite toy, and waited outside of the kitchen.

Frank, whom was significantly larger than his son, even as a bear, was conversing with Teddy, "Why do you think Teddy means bear?"

Teddy sniffled, and his black paw came up and wiped his nose, "You always call toy bears _teddy_ bears. I don't want to be a bear!"

Pointedly ignoring the irony of that statement, Frank consoled his son, "Oh, Teddy, we weren't calling you a bear, Teddy is just short for Theodore. But we love you and can stop calling you that if you want us to…"

Teddy looked hesitantly at his dad, "Wait, Daddy? You aren't calling me a bear?"

His father answered immediately, "No, of course not! We love you Teddy, we don't think you're a bear."

"Oh," was all Teddy said at first, then he added, "You can call me Teddy then."

Turning back into a human so that he was the same species as his son again Frank said, "Alright, then Teddy. Wanna go play Build A Warship?"

Teddy, having already forgotten about trying to be upset, started bouncing up and down, "Yes Daddy! Come on, let's go!"

He grabbed his father's hand and pulled him out of the kitchen, grabbing Theo the teddy bear from his mother on the way out.


	6. Telling Percy

**Here's another story about Percy and Annabeth. Dunno why, but they're easiest for me to write about. Suggestions welcome, and I hope you guys enjoy reading this.**

**-ROC6**

_**October 16th, 6 years after defeating Gaea**_

Annabeth was nervous, to say the least. This wasn't familiar territory for her and she wasn't sure quite how to do it. Regardless, she led Percy into his favorite little cafe. Actually it was made in his honor, but that's not why he liked it, no he kept insisting 'they should honor Jason, or Leo, or Piper, or you, Wise Girl, or Hazel, or Frank, or Grover, or Coach Hedge, or Nico, or Reyna, or Katie, or Clarisse, or Beckendorf, or Silena...', anyone but him really. No, what Percy liked about the cafe was that everything came blue. You could order a plain orange and they'd make it blue, even on the inside. (Thanks to a machine involving a Hecate camper, a Hephaestus camper, and a certain daughter of Athena that helped them design a restaurant version so she could get a second one installed at her house.)

But unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you looked at it, Percy was more observant than people gave him credit for, and while he didn't object to eating lunch at The Blue Bakery, he pestered Annabeth the entire time.

"Wise Girl, what's this for?" He asked, yet again. Annabeth sighed and picked at her blue salad. She was too nervous to really eat, and she wanted to Percy to have finished eating before she told him. She wasn't sure what his reaction would be, but she had a rough idea.

They made small talk over his blue cheeseburger, discussing work and having Percy pretend to listen to Annabeth's explanation of her newest architectural design. Pretty much how a lot of their conversations went. Finally, Percy finished his double cheeseburger, large fries (with blue ketchup), giant blue cookie and about three glasses of blue Coke.

"Hey Percy?" Annabeth said hesitantly while Percy was sipping his fourth glass of Coke. He immediately knew something was up, probably the reason for eating lunch out. He knew Annabeth was never hesitant and whatever she was about to tell him was probably very important.

Percy was sure his curiosity showed when she said, "I have something important to tell you."

He eyed her suspiciously, "You aren't divorcing me, are you?"

She laughed at the notion, "Of course not Seaweed Brain! I love you."

Percy visibly relaxed, at least it wasn't something too bad, then, "Oh. Go on, then."

"Well, er, we're pregnant," Annabeth said, blurting it out to him.

Immediately, Percy went completely rigid, eyes wide with shock, Coke halfway to his mouth. Annabeth started freaking out. She babbled to him, which normally would've been completely out of character for her, (curse you hormones,) "I know its sooner than we planned, but it happened and I hope you're okay with, but if you want me to leave I can-"

"Annabeth, calm down," Percy interrupted, putting down the Coke so he didn't spill it, "This is great. You're the one that wanted to wait. Imagine, we're going to be parents."

His eyes widened even more (which was somehow possible) as if just registering this, "I'm going to be a father."

After finishing the statement, he promptly passed out. She had predicted that happening sooner, so all in all, it went better than Annabeth expected.


	7. Parenting

_May 6th, 6 years after defeating Gaea_

Annabeth walked into the room and sighed, "Percy, you're smothering her."

"Nuh-uh, this is how you're supposed to hold a baby," he stated, matter-of-factly.

Suppressing a laugh at his childish behavior, she walked over and corrected his hold on Emmy, "You had everything right, except you were holding her head too low, you want her head to be higher so she can breathe."

"Oh," was all Percy had to say when she corrected how he was holding Emmy on his shoulder. He leaned over and stole a kiss from his wife.

"Jeez, Percy," she commented when they pulled away (,Emmy had started to cry), "I gave birth two weeks ago, you don't need to kiss me double anymore."

He smirked his troublemaker smile, and Annabeth knew she was a goner.

_May 12th, 6 years after defeating Gaea_

Emmy was still crying, but Percy left to change her diaper ten minutes ago, what could possibly be the problem? She sighed and got up, walking over to the room where they had situated all of Emmy's stuff.

She walked in and found Percy with Emmy face down on the table attempting to put the diaper on backwards.

"Come-on-you-stupid-thing," he said each word with a tug.

Annabeth sighed and walked over to him, "Seaweed Brain, you've got it backwards. The diaper goes on like this."

She showed him the proper way to do so until his ADHD took over after about thirty seconds and he hugged her. She melted into it for a moment before remembering Emmy, so she pulled away and continued with the diaper. After that, when he tried to hug her again, she didn't object, leaning into the hug, and just enjoying spending time with him.

_May 20th, 6 years after defeating Gaea_

Annabeth opened the door to the closet and started putting her groceries away when she heard her daughter start to wail. _What now?_ she thought to herself impatiently. She had only been gone for twenty minutes, and Emmy had been asleep when she left. She walked upstairs and located where the wail was coming from.

She found Percy and Emmy in the upstairs bathroom with the little tub they bought for bathing Emmy. It was filled with water and he was attempting to dunk Emmy, who was dripping wet, into it.

"Percy!" she shouted, "You're supposed to sponge bathe her, not dunk her in the water!"

"Oops," Percy said, though he didn't look very sorry, "Guess I forgot."

Annabeth tapped her foot impatiently, "You should be, she could've drowned. Now dry her off this instant!"

Percy did as he was told, for once, and handed his daughter to his wife. Annabeth sighed at seeing that her daughter was okay. She looked up from Emmy's sweet little face and saw sea green eyes identical to the ones she had just lifted hers from staring at her in a way similar to that of a baby seal.

"Love you, Wise Girl," he said, and she knew she couldn't be mad at him. He kissed her cheek, then dashed off, leaving Annabeth to chase after him.

_May 25th, 6 years after defeating Gaea_

Annabeth dropped her keys on the table, it was her first day back at work that day and she was exhausted. She stretched before walking into the family room and sitting on the couch. It was Percy's night to come up with dinner, which was probably going to be pizza, (again,) and she was looking forward to watching one of the fascinating documentaries on TV. Or even just settling for the news. She had just turned the TV on when she heard something crash on the floor above her.

Terrified for the safety of her child, she ran upstairs as fast as she could to see what had happened. She ran into her daughter's room, which was decorated with all sorts of aquatic creatures, only to find Percy holding a dull celestial bronze knife above Emmy. He was saying something, but she didn't catch what it was before she started yelling at him, "Perseus Jackson! How dare you hold a knife above our child!"

Percy looked up at her playfully, "It'll be hers someday, I had it specially crafted."

Annabeth will admit, her nerves were frazzled, "PERSEUS JACKSON! YOU DID NOT HAVE A KNIFE SPECIALLY CRAFTED FOR OUR DAUGHTER!"

He looked at her innocently, "I thought it was sweet. Love you Annabeth."

After pecking her on the cheek, he darted out of the room. Annabeth sighed, she knew she couldn't stay mad at him. She grabbed Emmy and raced out of the room after him, her anger already melted away by his emerald eyes.

_July 17th, 6 years after defeating Gaea_

She walked in on Percy trying to make a bottle and immediately wished she didn't. He was boiling seaweed on the stove, with a clean bottle sitting open nearby. She watch as he pulled the seaweed out of the water with tongs and touched it long enough for it to dry. He then used the grater, which was supposed to be used for cheese, he had set up to grate the seaweed. His fingers danced through the steps as if he'd done it a hundred times.

He measured out a spoonful and mixed it with two ounces of water, creating a mixture that looked exactly like baby formula. He walked over to Emmy, who was lying in a baby play pen on the counter two feet away, and began to feed her. Annabeth picked this moment to walk in.

"Hey Annabeth," Percy commented without looking up. Normally Annabeth would've snuck up on him, but she didn't want to scare him this time in case he would accidentally hurt Emmy.

"Do you always feed Emmy seaweed formula?" she asked tentatively, unsure if she actually wanted to hear the answer.

"Yeah, why?" was the casual response.

"You do know that she's supposed to have infant formula, right Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth responded.

"Whenever I made it she didn't like it," he explained.

She laughed and kissed Percy on the nose, "Next time, try harder. She needs the formula."

She walked out of the kitchen, but not before she heard Percy mutter, "This is what my mom gave to me. I asked."

_August 1st, 6 years after defeating Gaea_

Annabeth was having a good day, her architecture firm got a big job from Leo, because apparently he need a new shop built because his current one was too small and he was too terrified of her to ask anyone else. She dropped everything off in the kitchen and walked into the living room only to find Percy doing… something. Upon closer inspection, she realized he was having Emmy, who had recently learned to roll over, race against a turtle Percy got from gods know where to see who could travel a yard faster. It was surprisingly close.

She walked over to him, "Is this what you do when I'm not home?"

He made his famous baby seal face, "Maybe."

Sighing heavily, she started to clean up the race supplies he had set out, "Percy, go put that turtle back where you found it."

"No! Bobby is here to stay," he announced in a way similar to that of a preschooler.

"Alright, but you know he could give Emmy diseases, right?" Annabeth asked as she picked up her daughter, he nodded, "And Emmy could've gotten hurt! What if she rolled into something?"

"Don't worry, I wouldn't have let her," Percy was now stroking 'Bobby's' shell.

Annabeth sighed again and asked, "So, if you're this bad at parenting, how did you pass that class we took with flying colors?"

"I even beat you," Percy added smugly.

"Yes," she added grumbling with an I-will-kill-you-if-you-ever-mention-it-again stare, "You even got a better score than me, gods know how."

Annabeth knew he wasn't stupid, as evidenced by their most recent exchange, and his unexplainable lack of ability to be a responsible parent was driving her nuts, "Then why are you so bad at this?"

Percy's only response was a smirk, and suddenly an idea came to Annabeth and she said incredulously, "Seaweed Brain, were you just trying to get my attention this whole time?"

He flashed her a wink and his famous troublemaker smile and ran out of the room. Annabeth sighed and chased after him, _Oh, Seaweed Brain..._

**Here's another update, you guys, I hope you like it! Remember, suggestions are welcome. I think next time will be the Valdez's, so be excited!**

**-ROC6**


	8. Cell Phones

**Hey, I know everyone following this probably hate me right now for taking so annoyingly long to update. I'm sorry, okay, but my life is really busy right now, so if you can bare with slow updates for another two or three weeks until summer break, that would be great. I'll try to update when I can, but I probably won't be able to get too much don until then, okay? Thank you guys for sticking with me and being awesome! (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)**

**-ROC6**

_February 2nd, 14 years after defeating Gaea_

"-Okay, and Annabeth? Can you make it look really cool? I need it to be awesome. Like me. Like really awesome. Like Super-Sized McShizzle awes-" Leo was saying.

"Leo, I get it, you can stop talking now!" Annabeth interrupted his description of awesomeness. Leo had gathered together important business owners in New Athens because he was going to branch out to New York City and wanted advice. He also had very specific ideas of what his shop was going to be like.

"Yeah, dude, move on, or we're taking away your discount," Travis butted in. He and his brother had started a surprisingly successful pranking and prank supplies business known as 'We Stoll Your Wallet'. Connor was nodding in agreement, and Leo paled considerably. He spent a lot of money there.

"Okay, got it, moving on. Uh, Katie?" Leo said.

"Yeah?"

"Calypso wants Gardner's Gardening to help her figure out how to have a behind the shop garden, can you do that?" Leo asked.

Katie shrugged, "No problem."

Leo gave a nervous smile, "Great. Alright,-"

"Can we please get to why I'm here, Leo?" Percy asked from across the table, "I'm bored."

Leo sighed, he knew it was a bad idea to have so many ADHD demigods attend a meeting, "I need Jackson Marine Biology &amp; Olympian Recognized Best Surfing Academy to teach Rose how to surf, she was throwing a tantrum."

Percy looked confused, "But that isn't even releva-"

He was cut off a by a recording of Leo singing badly playing loudly across the room, "_Leo is awesome, Leo is the best, Leo Valdez beats all da rest!_"

Smiling sheepishly, Leo explained, "My phone. Last time I put it on vibrate so I could ignore it and Calypso yelled at me. For an hour. And a half. So unless this is Calypso…"

He checked his phone and said a not very nice word before answering, "What Calypso? I'm in the middle of a _gigantescamente_ meeting!"

She was loud enough everyone could hear her, "What? Leo! That doesn't even make sense!"

Percy called across the room, and Leo had built his phone a little too well so Calypso could actually hear him, "What'd he say?"

"He said it was a gigantically meeting."

The entire room burst out laughing, and Leo turned almost as red as his favorite thing-fire.

" I- Ah- Uh-" He said, causing more laughter erupt, until a squeal from Calypso silenced them.

"Leo get your butt home right now! Your children set the house on fire!"

Leo's face whitened, but you wouldn't know it by his response, "Hey! I thought they were _our_ children!"

"No!" was Calypso's immediate response, "They're your children when they act just like you!"

Leo was at a loss for words again until some sort of roar, or maybe it was more of a _whoosh_, was picked up by the receiver, "Oh my gods! Calypso!"

"Here and healthy, no thanks from you!"

"Do something! Call the fire department! Something!"

"Why do you think I called you?"

"... But how about the fire department?"

"I take it you don't remember."

Leo thought a moment, "Nope."

"You gave them the day off so they would stop complaining about your explosive experiments."

Now that she mentioned it, Leo remembered doing that. Whoops.

"Don't you have anybody else to call?" Leo whined.

"LEO VALDEZ!"

"All right, all right, I'll do something," he looked around the room, "Can you guys all come back at the same time tomorrow?"

A series of nods, and Leo sighed in relief, "Percy, can you come with me?"

A groan, "Again?"

Leo made a face, "Alright, fine, next time you want to roast marshmallows don't call on me then!"

Annabeth, who had been watching this exchange with amusement, laughed outright at the horrified expression on Percy's face as he said, "Alright! I'll do it, I'll do it!"

Smirking, Leo responded, "I know you will. To the Batmobile!"

(And yes, he actually built one.) How extinguishing the fire at Leo's house escalated to a full blown gaming night, Annabeth will never understand. Nor will she understand why, much to her fury, Percy didn't return until after midnight.


	9. Does It Hurt?

**Hello everyone! I know, I know, agonizingly long wait, but hey, school gets out in two days, so from now on, updates should be regular, meaning every two to four days, so you guys can look forwards to that, okay? Anyway, here we have another story for Hazel and Frank. I hope you guys enjoy, and that nobody seems OOC!**

**-ROC6**

_March 16th, 17 years after defeating Gaea_

Confession time; he was terrified. Sure he was proud, he had survived his first year in the legion! But yeah, Teddy Zhang was terrified.

"Mom. Does it hurt?" He asked, caramel eyes flitting nervously from side to side as they walked the familiar streets of New Rome. His father's hand felt heavy against his shoulder.

His mother smiled kindly at him, her gold eyes looking soft, comforting him in that way only mothers can achieve, "Teddy, you'll be fine. It burns some, but you're strong, you'll be fine."

This somehow made him even more nervous, what if he wasn't as strong as his mother thought he was? He'd be a disappointment, an outcast, he wouldn't be able to return home…

In the back of his mind a tiny voice told him he was overreacting, but hey, he was really nervous. Soon, they were outside of the Senate House, and Teddy's parents wished him well. He opened the heavy oak doors, and stepped inside.

The senate was waiting, some of them in plain purple t-shirts, some honoring tradition with their togas. All eyes turned to him as he entered, which didn't help his nerves. Praetor Jay and Praetor Avira went from casual conversation to serious business in less than a second or two.

"Theodore Zhang," Praetor Jay began, "You have served the legion faithfully for a year. Are you ready to be removed from _probatio_ and to become a full member of the twelfth legion of Rome?"

"I am," he tried to say, but it came out an almost inaudible squeak. Teddy tried again, trying to sound more confident, "I am."

The legacy of Apollo nodded, and this time it was Praetor Avira that spoke, "Then we are ready to welcome you into our ranks. Do we have any objections from the senate?"

Why she bothered to ask, no one really knows, as nobody would dare to object. A lot of them were utterly terrified of the wrath of Hazel and Frank Zhang (though they had never gone after anyone before). After a pause, the daughter of Venus continued her speech.

"Then it's time to welcome Theodore as a full member among us."

The senate all shouted together, "Senatus Populusque Romanus!"

Teddy's forearm burned, and he grit his teeth and tried his hardest not to cry out in pain. Oh it hurt, alright. After enduring this sensation for a few moments, it faded, much to Teddy's relief. He looked down at his forearm. There, seared into his skin, were the letters SPQR with a strange humanoid shape underneath, just like that on his mother's arm. There was one line present, representing his first year of service. He absorbed all of this in an instant, and looked up at the assembled senators, some of which looked mildly impressed. He opened his mouth to ask a question when Praetor Jay beat him to the chase.

"Yes, you are dismissed, Theodore Zhang."

Teddy took that as his permission to go, so he walked silently back out the doorway. It couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes he was inside, and his parents were still standing in the exact same places. When his dad saw him exit, he broke into a grin.

"Teddy! Did it go well?" He asked.

Teddy held up his arm.

"Awesome, did it hurt?" His wife shot him a puzzled look, and he scratched his head sheepishly, "Of course it hurt, but you got through it fine."

Frank clapped his son on the back, and Hazel came forward and gave the short Asian boy a hug.

"I knew you could do it," she whispered in his ear, then she pulled back, "Come on, let's go home."

Teddy trailed after his parents down the familiar streets of New Rome, feeling light as air. He commented to his parents as he felt his arm brush his shirt, "It didn't even hurt much, anyway."


	10. The Same, But Not Quite

**Alright, hey guys. Just Warning you, the Ending of this gets A Little Dark. I hope you are okay with this. I got a request to do something on Aiden and Belle, and I thought that it was probably due. Here's the result, it's mostly about their relationship as they were growing up. And as I'm sure you've noticed, it's really long. Three cheers for summer vacations! From now on you can expect regular updates every two to four days, so you guys can celebrate all you want. Also, to ForeverAmerican, whom I know reads this, the one I told you about is still in progress. I think this note has dragged on long enough, so suggestions welcome and I hope you like it!**

**-ROC6**

People always expect twins to be either exactly alike, or completely different. Well, Belle and Aiden didn't quite fit into either category.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_December 3rd, 8 years after defeating Gaea_

Piper had just finished carrying in the groceries, and she picked up the carriers with her children and carried them inside the house. She put the children carefully inside their playpen and turned to face the couch. She was about to turn the TV on when she heard two little voices. One said 'Mama' while the other simply said 'Ma'. She ran to get the camera.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_February 6th, 8 years after defeating Gaea_

Jason walked towards his children. One of his favorite things to do was watch his children. He loved them dearly, and he liked to watch as they just rolled around and made those happy gurgling noises typical of a baby. Expecting this time to be the same, he just sat down in front of them with the TV on in the background. Much to his surprise and delight, his daughter, Belle, started crawling towards him. He watched for a moment as she moved towards him in her little green jumper, a tuft of brown bouncing on top of her head. A moment, later, her brother, in his blue jumper, started moving, too.

"Piper! Bring the camera!" He called in ecstasy.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_June 19th, 8 years after defeating Gaea_

Since learning the crawl, Belle and Aiden had been moving almost constantly. While her parents almost always had to move Belle back into an area they could see her, Aiden stayed close to his parents. Often, their parents let them crawl around the living room while they were watching TV, keeping a close eye on them. One such occasion Belle was moving too far away for Aiden to like, and so he did the unthinkable. He stood, and took a step or two towards her before falling over. Belle saw him do this, and her immediate response was to try doing the same, still moving away from her brother. Piper supervised while Jason got the camera.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_August 28th, 13 years after defeating Gaea_

"Aidy, I'm so excited! There'll be other kids, other people to talk to!" Belle said while spinning happily in a circle, arms stretched wide. Her hair, which had originally been a dark brown was now a blonde brown color right in the middle, so no one knew which one it was, was tied in a single braid with a feather, something she had begged her mother to do.

"Yeah, I guess it sounds cool," Aiden said dejectedly. His kaleidoscope eyes hovered on a dark blue color a second longer than they usually do.

Belle stopped spinning and turned to look at her brother, who was younger by a few minutes, even if he'd never admit it. She fiddled with the hem of her denim romper (she tried to convince Aiden to wear one, too, but he was adamant about wearing shorts and a t-shirt), "You don't sound happy, Aidy. Why?"

He looked away, "It's always been just us. What if you like them better?"

"Oh Aidy," Belle sighed, "No one can ever replace you. We'll be friends forever, I promise."

Aiden perked up considerably, and joined his sister in spinning, "This is so fun!"

Of course Piper chose that moment to walk in the room, "Alright, Belle, Aiden, time to go to the bus stop."

She picked up their knapsacks, a sky blue one and-to her slight annoyance-a pink one, and handed them to the twins. Jason, unfortunately, was attending to some business in New Rome, and though he tried everything he could to get out of it, they insisted on him being there today.

"Alright, time to go. Have you brushed your teeth?" She asked, walking towards the door.

"Yes, Mommy."

"Of course."

"Good," Piper said with a smile, "Let's go."

Both of her children, while clenching her hands, started to run to the end of the street, where she told them the bus stop would be. The children were practically bouncing up and down as they waited for the bus to come, and when it did, they practically jumped on it.

Later, when Piper picked them up, the first thing Aiden did when he got off of the bus was he ran over and hugged his mother. Belle watched him.

"Hey Mommy? Can we get ice cream? It was a hard first day of kindergarten." She asked after a moment.

Aiden nodded enthusiastically, "Ice cream, please."

Piper laughed at their antics.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_August 26th, 19 years after defeating Gaea_

"Belle! You said you'd sit with me, Jacob and Rose at lunch!" Aiden confronted his twin after school. Normally their parents would've met them at the bus stop, but Belle had convinced them they didn't need it anymore. He had liked it.

"Oh, sorry about that," she said breezily, not sounding particularly sorry, "Something came up."

Aiden ran a hand through his mop of blonde hair, which was why Rose called him Blonde Superboy, "We planned this on the last day of fifth grade last spring!"

"Sorry, but this nice girl Lily Tanaka came up to me, asked me to sit with them. She was very persuasive, so I said yes," Belle said.

Aiden sighed in displeasure. Each grade in the middle school was split into two teams, and Belle was the only one from their friend group not on the same team. Even though it had been six years, Aiden felt as though Belle only hung out with Rose and Jacob because he liked them.

"Okay, well, don't ditch us tomorrow," he said finally.

"No worries, I promise!" then, noticing his sullen expression, "Hey, don't be sad. You know what can make you feel better? I convinced Mom to buy-"

"-Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream," they finished together.

Aiden smiled at Belle, "Alright."

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_October 30th, 21 years after defeating Gaea_

"Aren't you going? It's the first dance," Belle asked, taking a break from doing her hair and looking at her brother in dismay.

He looked at her sheepishly, "Rose and I are meeting at Jacob's house."

She shook her head slowly at him, and Aiden sighed, "I take it you don't want to come."

"No Hon," she said, finishing with her eyeshadow and moving on the her mascara. Aiden hated her. Not her as his sister, but the new her, the one that was besties with Lily and always blew him off. Of course, he could 'convince' her to come, but then they'd both be unhappy. Let her be happy.

"Figures," he grumbled, then added at a practically inaudible volume, "You haven't really spoken to me in public since you met that oh so special Lily girl. Are we not good enough for you?"

Belle looked up from doing her blush, sounding genuinely concerned, "What was that?"

"Oh, nothing."

He tried to sneak out silently, but she noticed, "You know I still love you, right Aidy? If something's wrong I would like it if you told me."

"I-," he started to say, then thought better of it, what if she laughed at him, "No, nothing's wrong. Love you too, Bee."

Aiden left his sister to her short dresses heels and make up wondering what happened. When did she change? When did she let Lily Tanaka come between them?

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_April 13th, 21 years after defeating Gaea_

"Hey cool! There's a meteorology class! Aiden, are you taking this?" Belle asked, looking up from her course options.

"Since when would I not?"

She laughed, "True enough."

It was a Saturday in the middle of eighth grade's spring break, and they were planning their courses for high school the next year. This was Aiden's favorite type of day. A lazy day at home where he actually got to see his sister, the real one, not the one that hid behind the makeup mask.

"Will you be taking it?"

"Hmm, I'd have to ask Lily."

There she was again. Lily. Aiden had tried and tried, but he hated the girl. Suddenly, Belle met her and they became best friends and it was like he was blown out of the picture. He tried not to show his thoughts, but Belle had always been able to read him well, and vice versa. She must have sensed his mood darkening.

"Aiden, I know you don't like Lily, but the least you could do is pretend," she said chidingly.

He considered saying something mean back to her, ('I know you don't like Rose and Jacob…',) but he knew that wouldn't help, "I know."  
She sent him a smile, "Thank you."

A moment later she was at it again, "Hey look Aiden, there's a shop class, I bet Rose will be taking that!"

Aiden's face grew pink, "Just gonna cross that one off the list…"

"Alright, but will you take, hmm, biology with me?"

"Sadly, it's too late to change now," Aiden commented, trying to keep a straight face.

"Hey!"

Belle and Aiden both burst out laughing. When they calmed down again, Belle was looking off into space.

"Hey Aiden?"

"Yeah?"

"Race me to the park, I heard the ice cream truck. Last one there pays."

"You're on."

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_November 24th, 23 years after defeating Gaea_

When Belle told Aiden she was going out on another date with Emmet Stoll, he wasn't expecting her back for another few hours so he invited Jacob and Rose over to hang out. They were playing Call of Demigods together when he heard his phone ring with his sister's ringtone. He paused the game.

"Hey, Belle is calling, you two keep playing without me," Rose pursed her lips and Jacob glared into nothingness for a moment before nodding. They didn't really like speaking about Belle.

He grabbed his phone and walked out onto the front porch, closing the door behind him, "Hello?"

"Aidy, I'm coming home."

He could hear her sniffling, "What happened?"

"It's Emmet, he- He broke up with me."

This was probably the last thing he was expecting her to say, "Oh. How long until you get here?"

"Like a minute or two."

"Alright, I'm waiting out front."

He sat down on the porch step and watched for his sister. He wasn't sure how to deal with this, as she hadn't had a break up before, and he himself had absolutely no experience either. For awhile he watched the fireflies dancing in the fading light before he heard the telltale sniffles of his sister. She looked like a wreck. Her makeup was smeared with some of it running down her face, her blouse was rumpled and her boots needed to be be pulled up, having drifted down to two different heights on her skinny jean clad legs.

She walked slowly to the porch and sat down next to him. They sat in silence for a little while.

"Why," Belle started, and Aiden looked over at her, "Why did he break up with me? Is something wrong with me?"

"No, Bee, there is nothing wrong with you."

"Then why?"

Aiden sighed, "I honestly don't know, but hey. Don't take it the wrong way. You are amazing, Bee. You're kind, smart. Trustworthy. Nothing could push him away from you. He must have some problem himself because you did nothing wrong, okay?"

"But-"

"Look, I'm no good at this comforting stuff, but you're an amazing person, my other half," she smiled at him here, after all, twins were still twins no matter what happened, "And I know that someday you'll find the right guy, okay?"

He was thankful she didn't notice that he laced that last sentence with a little bit of charmspeak, as she leaned over and hugged him.

She gave him a tentative smile, and he smiled back, "Hey, how about you go get cleaned up and I'll get some ice cream out, sound like a deal."

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_August 27th, 25 years after defeating Gaea_

"Hey, Bee, how was the first day of your senior-"

"Lily's mom is out so she's having a party," Belle interrupted, "I'm going so cover for me."

They were doing homework at the kitchen table, and Aiden smacked the table with his fist, causing Belle to flinch at the sudden noise. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Belle, you can't keep going on like this, someday they'll get suspicious."

"Nonsense, Mom and Dad think I'm their little angel."

"More like little devil," Aiden grumbled under his breath, causing Belle to glare at him.

"Hey, I'll be back by curfew, I promise," she said, causing Aiden to roll his eyes, "What?"

He frowned at her, "Oh, nothing. I just know a little bumblebee that hasn't kept a promise in years."

"Oh yeah? Name one," she said, glowering at him. By now they were both standing, hovering an inch or two off the ground.

"Hmm," he pretended to think, "How about that time when you promised me nothing would ever come between us?"

She glared at him speechless for a moment before saying, "Well I don't keep promises if they aren't to worthy people!"

"Oh that does it!" They both had their swords out now.

Aiden could feel the gathering electricity in the air thanks to his sister, and he was summoning up every bit of persuasiveness he possessed.

Just then their mother walked in, and yelled, "What are you two doing?"

Aiden and Belle both glanced at each other before saying in unison, "They started it!"

They then proceeded to glare at each other.

Piper frowned and charmspoke them, "Both of you, to your rooms! Now!"

They both left grumbling about annoying twins.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_May 31st, 25 years after defeating Gaea_

Aiden watched his sister with a scowl as she danced with her prom date Jeremy in the dimly lit gymnasium (not that you'd know it was the gym, it was so covered in sparkles and streamers). They hadn't spoken in weeks, only given each other passing glares in the halls. Not after Aiden refused to cover for her when she snuck out to a party, resulting in her getting caught and grounded. He heard his empty plastic punch cup crack, and felt a calloused hand pull it out of his. He looked up and Rose was standing in front of him. He didn't even know she had come, as she was always complaining prom was so stupid.

She smiled at him and brushed a few black curls out of her makeup free face, "Last I checked, the cup hadn't done anything to you, what's wrong?"

"It's just Bee, don't worry, Katniss," he said with a wink.

She frowned, "I still hate that nickname."

"Welcome to the club, I don't particularly like being called 'The Persuasinator' or Air Head, but you do it anyway."

"Touche," Rose responded, then noticed Aiden's multicolored eyes watching his sister again, "It really hurts you doesn't it?"

"She's so different now I feel as if I hardly know her…"

Rose nodded in sympathy, "Same for Hya."

They watched for a moment longer, standing in a companionable silence only found by years old friends, "I think she needs an awakening, and I just have to watch her crash and burn."

Rose furrowed her eyebrows cutely, "Here, dance with me. That'll take your mind off of things."

With one last glance at his sister, he accepted her outstretched hand.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_June 18th, 25 years after defeating Gaea_

It was their graduation day when Belle next spoke to him. They were supposed to get their cap and gowns on so they could go, but Aiden was flopped on his bed watching Youtube videos.

Suddenly, a knock on his bedroom door startled him and he hurried to open it. To his astonishment, Belle was standing there, her face flushed and her blue eyes swollen as if she was just crying.

She walked in uninvited and sat on his bed. She collected her thoughts a moment.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I'm sorry for blowing you off for years, for treating you terribly, for being irresponsible and the worst twin ever and still expecting you to be waiting for me. For getting caught up in the wrong crowd. For breaking my promise. I wish… I wish I could go back and change what I've done, but I can't, and I'm sorry. So, terribly, sorry. And I know it might take years to regain your trust, but I hope that someday you can forgive me."

Then, Belle burst into tears. Aiden had been watching this go down with a shocked look on his face. Finally, he found his voice.

"Wha- What happened?"

"Lily," Belle got out between sniffles, "It was Lily. Her mom just called. They found a stash of- Of Happy Juice and stuff in her bedroom. Said she took too much, and that she- She's in the hospital in critical condition."

Aiden stared in astonishment for a moment, then surged forward and embraced her in a hug, "I never gave up on you Bee."


	11. Father's Day

**Hello everyone! I told you you would be getting regular updates! Here's a Caleo one-shot, and remember, suggestions are welcome, and let me know if you have any preferences on who you guys want to hear about next, okay? Okay. I hope you guys enjoy!**

**-ROC6**

_June 21st, 13 years after defeating Gaea_

"Come on! Where are my presents?" Her dad begged her mother while bouncing around in the kitchen.

"Leo, we can celebrate once you get back. Everyone had better have a present ready for you once you finish running your errands," Mommy said the last part glancing at her, and Rose sent an innocent smile her way. Her mother bought it, thankfully.

Calypso smiled gently at Leo, "If you can learn some patience, we'll see you in about an hour, alright?"

Rose's dad smirked and kissed his wife, and Rose stuck out her tongue, "Eww! Mommy! Papi! That's disgusting!"

They broke apart with flushed cheeks, and Rose considered her job done. She walked casually out of the room then took off running towards where she knew the arts and craft supplies where. She had already made a big extravagant card for her father, but she still couldn't figure out what to do for his present. Hya, (since no one called her by her unfortunate name of Hyacinth,) being four, had just made a crayon picture and called it good. Ember was only two, so she got away with not having to make anything. Rose, though… Rose was starting to panic, she needed a gift for her Papi. She didn't want to see another fire tantrum caused by anyone except for herself.

After hearing the telltale sound of the front door closing, she started to wander through the house hoping for an idea to strike her. After what felt like a while, though Rose was bad with time, so it was probably like five minutes, she made the decision to walk through the kitchen. It wasn't like it could make her dilemma any worse. She was looking on the counters for anything she could pilfer and call hers, when she saw the sparking toaster.

Mommy had been complaining for awhile for Papi to fix it, and he kept saying that he had too many other projects going. Rose made the decision that the best gift she could give him would be to fix it for him, so she ran to get some of the tools she'd pilfered from him when he wasn't looking. Much to her annoyance, she wasn't allowed to visit the making room Papi loved to disappear to, so she'd take any tools he left sitting out. She pulled out her array of tools, consisting of a bunch of screwdrivers with variously colored handles, a wrench, a packet of nails, a packet of screws, three hammers, a spare wire, and some kind of rubber thing she somehow knew went with the wire.

She knew her mother would disapprove of her project, but thankfully her Mommy was upstairs entertaining Hya and Ember. Since she had played with the tools in her spare time, (she always found the idea of making things alluring,) she knew how to work a screwdriver, and the nail holes in her bedroom wall, much to the bafflement of her parents, were evidence enough that she could work a hammer. Setting to work on the toaster, Rose began unscrewing the back panel, and quickly lost her ADHD mind in her work. She didn't realize just how long she was working until she was screwing the back panel on and heard the front door open again.

Her head snapped up, chocolate eyes wide, and she ran up to her bedroom, cradling the toaster in one arm and her tools wrapped in the hem of her shirt. She prayed to her grandfather that her dad wouldn't catch her as she ran by him to get to the stairs.

When he saw her he started to say, "Hey Ro where are you-"

But she was gone before he could finish the sentence. She quickly stached her tools in her room and pulled his card out, and ran down the stairs to the kitchen table. Papi was just finishing with Hya's gifts when she shoved her card on the table and his the toaster behind her back. He hugged Hya and then opened Rose's card for him, smiling gently.

He looked up after a moment, still smiling, "Hey Rosie, thank you for the card. Do I get a present, too?"

She held the toaster up to him, "Happy Father's day Papi! I fixed the toaster for you!"

He examined the exterior and shot her a smile, "Hey Sunshine, can you bring me piece of bread so I can test out Rose's work?"

Calypso got up and got some bread while Leo plugged in the toaster. Rose prayed that she did it correctly, as she hadn't had the chance to test it. She tried to upgrade it with some of the pre existing parts, and she may have wandered into her father's crafting room and stolen a few parts she needed. Rose's mom came back with the bread, and Leo plopped it into the toaster and popped the button down. He flinched when a panel slid open loudly.

"What's this?" He asked, examining the four buttons labeled _Lite, Patern, seerd, _and _Goldun_ in Rose's big spidery handwriting. Her Papi eventually selected pattern and the first panel slid closed while another slid open revealing a touchscreen. Okay, so Rose may have nabbed a piece from one of the inventions he was working on and programmed it. But in her defense, he was the one that had been giving her programming lessons, all she had to do was add her wire and screw the screen into place. There was a label on the screen, _Draw the patern u want seerd in to yur bred_. Leo drew a smilely face on the touch screen. His finger was attracting, as she'd stolen an old magnet from the fridge her mother kept complaining was an eyesore, the wires that heated up and bending them to the shape he was drawing. After a moment the toast popped up and Rose sighed in relief that it had worked correctly when she heard the heating wires snap back with a pop, though she was pretty sure there had been some interference from her grandfather. She wasn't complaining.

"Did you add all this?" Papi asked her incredulously.

She nodded, "I thought you would like it…"

"Are you kidding? It's awesome!" This earned him a stern glare from his wife, "I mean, totally irresponsible of you, but awesome!"

Calypso facepalmed while Leo smiled cheekily. He smirked and said to her, "I told you she was ready to start learning in the forge!"

A smile lit up Rose's nervous expression, "Really?"

"Of course, I was younger than you when I started learning the trade!" Her Papi exclaimed. She smiled. Maybe forgetting to get her dad a Father's Day gift ahead of time wasn't such a bad thing, just this once.

Later as he was leading her into the forge, she remembered, "Oh, Papi, I took your screen."

"What? Which one?"

She giggled at his terrified expression, "One you won't miss."


	12. Name Games: Calypso and Leo

**See? Regular updates! Amazing! I told you guys that when I have time, I can actually be consistent. Alright, so I need suggestions. What couple's children do you want to see next? Do you have a specific child in mind? Do you want to see any two children interacting? I need ideas, so any suggestions you can give are welcome, whether through PM or reviews, comprende? Good. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and you'll see another in (hopefully) four days.**

**-ROC6**

_July 23rd, 7 years after defeating Gaea_

Calypso cornered her husband one night coming back from the forge, "Leo."

He gulped, then said meekly, "Yes, Dearest?"

Smirking, 'Dearest' announced, "We need to decide on names."

"Any ideas?" was his nervous response. Leo was terrified of his pregnant wife.

Calypso sat down on the couch, "How about, I name it if its a girl, and you name it if it's a boy, deal?"

Leo sat nervously next to her, his leg bouncing up and down, "Do you have an idea for the name, Sunshine?"

His wife stared into space for a moment, "I think I like the name Rose."

Since he was certain by now that his wife wouldn't have any dramatic mood swings, Leo grinned at her, trying to keep all cheekiness out of his expression, "_His_ name shall be Fuego."

At this point, Calypso wasn't done learning Spanish, so she didn't realize what he had suggested to name his potential son. Rather, she nodded slowly to herself.

"Unique, I like it."

Leo grinned in ecstasy. He knew by the time the child was born she'd pretty much know the Spanish language, so he decided to seal the deal ahead of time, "I swear on the River Styx that the name of our first-born child shall be either Rose or Fuego."

He nudged Calypso, who sighed, "I swear, too."

Leo proceeded to wait until Calypso left the room before fist pumping, "Yes!"

"What was that?" Calypso called.

"Nothing!"

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_September 5th, 8 years after defeating Gaea_

A few weeks later, Calypso was home from another Spanish class.

"Leo Valdez!"

Taking this as a bad sign, Leo tried to run to his forge for backup, but his wife was, unfortunately, waiting at the door.

"Leo Valdez!" Calypso shrieked again, "Fire! You want to name our son _fire_!"

"Hey, you swore!" Leo retorted, which probably wasn't the best choice.

Calypso made a grab for him and he started running, "Get back here Valdez!"

"Never gonna happen Sunshine!" Leo called back to a fuming Calypso.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_March 5th, 9 years after defeating Gaea_

This time around, Leo wasn't as terrified of his wife, so it was he who approached her, "Hey, we need to decide on names."

She looked up lazily from her gardening magazine, "Sure."

Leo tried again, "I like the deal we did last time, wanna do it again?"

Calypso narrowed her eyes slightly, "Alright."

Grinning, Leo responded, "Awesome. Any ideas what to name her if we have another daughter?"

"Umm," Calypso said, flipping the page in her magazine, "How about Hyacinth?"

"Pft," Leo said, trying not to laugh and failing epically, "That's almost as bad as Rose's suggestion of 'Burny'."

His wife glared at him, "It is not!"

"Okay, seriously?" Leo was chuckling, "Hyacinth. It sounds like a name for a wussy pain."

"Leo!" Calypso replied indignantly, "It's a perfectly respectable flower. Her name will be Hyacinth, and that's final."

They sat in silence for a moment, then she asked, "Leo? What's your idea?"

"Charles."

The conversation kind of died after that.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_January 9th, 11 years after defeating Gaea_

"Calypso!" Leo whined, "I wanna name it this time!"

Calypso groaned and removed her hands from her ears. She still couldn't believe he convinced her that another child was a good idea. She gave up, "Alright, fine! But I need to approve of the names. I still don't trust you after that whole 'Hot Stuff Jr.' incident."

"Fine," Leo responded, dragging the word out, "His name will be Charles."

"Alright," Calypso approved, causing Leo to grin, "But you still need to pick out a girl's name."

Giving her a frown, Leo responded, "Hold the phone, we agreed that I could finally have a son this time."

"I said no such thing!" Calypso responded hotly.

"Well I want a son, someone to help protect Rose and Hya, so you'd better be getting good vibes," Leo said.

Calypso sighed, "Leo, you can't just choose the gender. You have to have a girl's name ready. How about Esperanza?"

He cringed away from the name, "No, definitely not. and while we're at it, the sibling suggestions of 'Pwitty' and 'Bubberfwy' are out, too."

"Agreed," Calypso smiled, then frowned at him, creasing her brow, "It's not that hard to pick a name. How about something like Lily?"

Sighing, Leo pointed out, "We already have two daughters named after flowers, do we really need a third?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No. How about Ember?" Leo finally suggested.

Calypso smiled, "I love it, Leo."


	13. Watch Where You're Going!

**Here you go guys! Another update. Told you I could do it. Alright, next I'm thinking another one about Teddy, but I'm not sure what, what do you guys think? I need suggestions peeps! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, it just kind of popped into my head.**

**-ROC6**

_August 26th, 19 years after defeating Gaea_

Belle watched her brother's receding back for a moment before turning towards the hallway she was supposed to go down. You never realized how close you were to someone until you had to stay apart, and everyone she'd been close to before were already in that hallway, waiting for her brother. Rose, Aiden, Jacob. Emmy had led them as far as she could, but even she had turned off a while back. Belle knew it would be strange being without them, but at least she wouldn't have to feel.. So… _Different _in their tight-knit group of friends anymore.

She looked nervously down the hall. Some of the students she recognized from her elementary school, but there were a lot of unfamiliar faces, too. Looping her thumb under one of her backpack straps, a habit she'd developed over the years, Belle looked down at the schedule clenched tightly in her hand. _D-37_, she thought to herself, _I need to find D-37_. Sure, she had gone to the orientation, but this time around she didn't have a guide, so she was still lost. She started walking, glancing at the walls of the hallway, which were covered in blue lockers, some of which were swinging partially open. They were narrow lockers for you backpacks with a small cubby with an open-able hatch on top for her books. She hoped she wouldn't have a lot of books. Using her index finger, Belle pulled her schedule back to look at her map, as she was making absolutely no progress in the whole 'find your homeroom' thing.

Suddenly, she ran into someone, and the map and schedule went flying out of her hands. Belle clamored to her feet from where she'd been sent sprawling on the floor, and started picking up her papers.

"Hey! Watch where you'r-" a girl started to say.

Belle looked up. A dark haired girl was glaring at her.

"Thanks a lot, you messed up my hair," the girl complained, pulling out a handheld mirror and inspecting herself. Somehow, even though the girl was wearing lip gloss and light blush, which was a lot of make up for a sixth grader, nothing looked wrong. Belle disagreed with the girl's statement, as, while multiple of her brunette locks had fallen out of her braid (, thank the gods the feather was still there, that could've been a nightmare), the Asian girl's hair still hung in a glossy sheet.

"Sorry," Belle apologized, having finished picking up her things. She straightened her pink t-shirt (which didn't actually need straightening), "Did you lose any of your things?"

"No, thank gods," the girl replied with a tight smile, "I'm Lily, by the way, Lily Tanaka."

After inspecting 'Lily' for a moment, Belle replied, "Belle Grace."

The two girls stared at eachother for a moment before Lily spoke again. Belle was absorbing Lily's skinny jeans and tight tank top while the girl stood with her hands on her hips and her head cocked to the side. Lily, on the other hand, was taking in Belle's nervous posture, baggy shirt and boy shorts.

"So…" she drew out, "Do you wanna, like, I dunno, sit with me at lunch today?"

Noting the way the end of her sentence rose in pitch, Belle thought on it for a moment. Not the sitting with her at lunch thing-she'd already promised her brother she'd sit with him (and she never broke a promise)-but whether or not she wanted to associate with this girl. It was already obvious how bossy Lily was, and that she was probably used to getting her way. A bit vain, too. Had this happened last year, Belle would've said no, and stay away from me, but she needed someone she knew that she shared classes with, and it sounded like the girl, Lily, needed someone like that, too. While she's a great actress, the confidence guise was broken by the rise in pitch of her voice at the end of the sentence.

Probably, there were better choices in friends, but she was curious. What was it like to be friends with Lily? Could she change her vain ways? Somewhere in the back of her mind the name Tanaka struck a nerve from one of her mom's stories, and if this was that woman's daughter… Well, maybe Belle could save her from the same fate.

"Sorry," Belle finally said, "I promised my brother I'd sit with him and his best friends."

"Oh," The girl said, semi-sadly, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Belle smiled at her sadly, it looked as if this girl needed a friend. She turned to go, but Lily spoke again.

"You _will_ sit with me at lunch today," she said, a sugariness in her voice that wasn't there before. Belle recognized it, too, her mother used it on her and Aiden all the time. Like this morning for example ('Get out of bed!').

She felt the charmspeak wash over her, and she tried her hardest to resist, knowing very well that it was a bad thing to run into this girl. Unfortunately, her will wasn't strong enough to resist magic-what eleven-year-old's would be?-and she felt herself give in.

"Okay," she could hear her voice saying dazedly, while mentally she pleaded, _Please forgive me Aiden._

Lily let out a dazzling smile, "Fabulous. Now come on. If I saw your schedule correctly, you have the same homeroom as me, and I've already stopped there."

She turned with a swish of her hips, and started walking down the hall, her boots clopping loudly on the floor-how had Belle not heard her coming?-as she pranced away.

By now, Belle had decided that it wasn't in her best interests to associate with Lily, but they both needed a friend, and Lily was offering her guidance, so she scurried down the hall after her. Perhaps this wouldn't turn out horribly for them. After all, what was the worst that could happen?


	14. Where Are You Going?

**If you plan to comment, I know I'm a day late, but it was either a cruddy chapter on time or an inspired chapter a day late. [For those that read How I Feel, I will still update from time to time, but not consistently, as I'm not really receiving requests and such, and I'm feeling uninspired for it.] So yeah. There's a funny chapter I've been working on for awhile now that will hopefully be done on the next update, so look forward to that. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay cool.**

**-ROC6**

June_ 19th, 20 years after defeating Gaea_

"Aiden?" Piper called after her thirteen year old son, "Where are you going?"

"Camp."

Frowning, Piper walked over to him, "You were just there earlier today, and I know for a fact that it isn't Friday. Why are you going back to the camp?"

"Well you see," Aiden explained, lacing his voice with just enough charmspeak to convince his mother without alerting her he was using magic, "It was decided that they'd hold a combat tournament and I wanted to go."

Blinking at him, Piper asked, "Are you going to participate?"

"Dunno. I want to hear the rules first."

"Well," Piper said, removing her hand from where it had been resting on his shoulder, "Go ahead then."

Aiden smiled and exited the house.

Piper sighed and walked over to the couch. She'd be lonely tonight, as Belle was sleeping over at Lily's house and Jason was in New Rome again. She flopped down onto the couch and picked up the remote when a golden glint caught her eye. How on earth was Aiden going to do a tournament if he left his gladius in the house?

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

"Rose."

She winced, "Yes Mom?"

Calypso frowned at her daughter, "What are you doing?"

"Going to camp," Rose responded swiftly, keeping her face a picture of innocence.

"There's no capture the flag tonight, and you and your father have your own personal forge. Why would you need to go back to camp?"

"Well," she began, racking her brain, "You see, they, uh, broke the camp forge and I have to fix it."

"Seriously?"

Rose took this as a sign of her mother believing her and she started to move towards the door. Then Calypso stopped her, "Rose! You can't break the forge, so what did you do this time?"

"I- uh-" Rose wasn't sure what to say to her mother's smoldering expression, so she reached into her tool belt. It wasn't magic like her father's but that didn't stop her from using it. She felt her hand clasp around the canister she was looking for. She pulled the suspender that always falls off onto her shoulder so her mother couldn't grab her, a habit she picked up from her father years ago, and yanked her hand out of her belt. She pressed the spray button, and bright red silly string flew out and all over her mother. Unfortunately, as Rose would find out later, she accidentally used the prototype she'd been working on that didn't come off.

Rose took advantage of her mother's surprise and fled out the door. Leo walked around to see what the commotion was only to see the leg of his daughter's cargo pants as she fled the premises and his wife trying to get the silly string off of her face.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

His mom was at a business meeting, which he was thankful for, as that would make Jacob's task a lot easier than it would've been.

Trying to walk casually, he made his way to the door. He hoped his father would be oblivious this time, just like he was in all of his mom's stories. Unfortunately, Jacob thought to himself, luck wasn't on his side.

"Where are you going, Jacob?" His father called to him as he made his way towards his son.

_Styx_, "Camp."

"Why?"

"Uh, the hippocampi, no, the, uh, pegasi wanted a mediation session?" Jacob said, his voice rising in pitch towards the end of the statement.

Percy inspected his son's face for a moment before responding, "I've done enough stupid things to know what an excuse sounds like, Jacob, but I'm not going to ask. All I need to know is did you hurt yourself?"

Jacob thought back to what had happened earlier that day, "...No?"

His father sighed, "Are you going to hurt yourself further?"

After pondering for a few seconds, Jacob decided, "No."

"Alright, you can go," his father said, causing Jacob to smile and make his way towards the door, "But you might want to ask your sister for lying lessons."

Jacob rolled his eyes, only his father would encourage him to learn to lie, and made his way towards camp.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

The three friends met at the boundary of the camp portion, and Aiden asked Rose and Jacob, "Did you guys get out okay?"

Rose winced, "My mom will be furious, though not as furious as she would've been if I told the truth, I had to spray her with silly string."

Shrugging indifferently, Jacob commented, "My dad told me to get lying lessons from my sister and let me go."

"Oh," Aiden responded, "My mom let me go just fine."

Rose rolled her eyes, "No duh, Air Head, you have charmspeak."

Jacob nodded in agreement, and Aiden huffed, "Well, we wouldn't be in this situation if you two didn't decide to do something stupid. Again."

"Oh come on!" Jacob responded, "It sounded awesome."

"Would've looked awesome," Rose added in, "Had we succeeded."

Aiden tried to pretend to be mad at them, but he couldn't keep the smile off of his face, "That's true."

The other two smiled smugly, and Aiden added, "Just next time you two decide to try lavabending, we might want to do it at night when no one will see us."

"Okay," Rose admitted, "Well that's true."

Jacob winced at the memory of the afternoon, "And we might want a bucket nearby, I don't want to have to run on fire to the beach again."

"Hey, just be glad the ambrosia fixed anything too visible that your parents could've noticed, and that you have the sea in your blood, otherwise it could've been a lot worse," Rose chided him.

"What I'm still trying to figure out," Aiden said slowly, "Is how you two managed to break the lava climbing wall."

"If there's one thing I learned," Jacob responded, "It's to never question it."

"I'm just glad you were here Persuasinater, you took three weeks off of our punishment," Rose said with a sigh.

The three walked into the Big House and down into the basement. Jacob and Aiden suited up with asbestos gloves while Rose just shoved her hands right into the lava and started scrubbing the dishes.

"Now Katniss, Aqua Boy," Aiden said, "We just need to keep this from our parents for the rest of the week."


	15. It's Official

***Peek****s out from under rock* Hello Friendlies! I know you're probably mad at me for promising regular updates during the summer, then not updating regularly, but I have a valid exc****use. I was... *drumroll* On vacation! And I can't write because typing on a tablet doesn't really work for me, so, sorry. It took me way more draft than usual (like, two,) to write this, so I hope you like it. Stay awesome, everyone.**

**-ROC6**

_May 25th, 22 years after defeating Gaea_

He watched as the blonde girl locked the door behind herself before walking over to meet him. Trying not to watch the hypnotic sway of her curly ponytail, or the cute way her eyebrows knit together when she was nervous, he started walking by her side.

"Emily," Ace said, the word heavy with what needed to be said. The friends always met up after school ever since Ace moved full time to Camp Half-Blood, and they always walked to the training arena together, where she'd whoop his butt time and time again. They'd talk about stupid things, like the time her brother got his hand stuck in a blender, or when she and Rose stole her mother's computer. Never had the weight of the air between them been so heavy on what was usually a casual afternoon walk.

She grumbled a few things he couldn't make out before saying, a little clearer than before, "Why are you the only one annoying enough to refuse to call me Emmy?"

"'Cause I'm special like that," he responded, trying to send her a dazzling grin.

She muttered something about insufferable children of Apollo, but he knew she didn't actually mind.

Like the flip of a switch, the joking mood left again, and the Ace prompted her towards the topic dangling over both of their heads, "Emily."

"I know," she said heavily.

He tried to ignore the tired resignation in her voice, but by then any facade of comfort, calmness or confidence had disappeared, "Look, I'm sorry. If-"

"Don't be sorry," she cut him off, startling him in her ferocity, "Gods, you idiot, don't be sorry. I was the one that pushed towards it."

"Yeah, but I was the one that did it first!" He retorted, she was _not_ taking the blame for this. Styx, if he had ruined their friendship, so be it, but it wasn't her fault.

She glared at him, which scared the Hades out of him. The only people he knew of with scarier glares were her parents. She held the expression a moment, then cracked the smile that made his heart skip a beat, her glare falling apart.

"Are we seriously arguing about who's fault this mess is?" she said, the light-hearted tone returning to her voice.

He chuckled, "Why, I think we were, Lady Pro-Spa."

She shook her head, emitting a loft laugh, "You're losing your originality, UV. Lady Nerd-Face is your best?"

"Um, no?" he said, his face flushing red.

"You sounded so much better on paper."

"Hey!" he objected.

"You know it's true," she said, laughing at his childish expression. She grew solemn again after a minute, "Can we stop tiptoeing around it?"

He hesitated, were they ready for this? "Yes."

"Good," she said, satisfied, "We need to figure things out."

"Do we have to?" he whined.

"Ace Gordon," she said with a thunderous expression, her voice deadly calm, "You are the one that kissed me during the fireworks yesterday. Yes, we have to talk about it."

"But why?" he responded, still sounding like a kindergartener being told to take his hand out of the cookie jar.

She threw her hands in the air, "You are impossible, worse than Dad."

Ace knew he shouldn't, but he took pride in the statement, "Sorry?"

"Look, we need to discuss this, before others start to ask," she said gently.

"Oh alright."

"Good. So…" she trailed off, "I don't know how to do this, I've never dated anyone before."

"Neither have I," he admitted.

Had she been drinking something, Emmy would've done a spit take. As is, her head whipped to face him at record speed, "Seriously?"

"No. I'm Ace, not Sirius," he said, barely keeping a straight face.

She fingered her knife, "I never should've shown you those books."

"Why what's Ron?" he said innocently, some of his dirty blonde hair flopping in his face.

"Look," she changed the topic abruptly, green eyes flashing, "We need to know. Are. We. A. Thing."

"I-" Ace cut off, the vibrancy of his blue-brown eyes fading some, "Do you want us to be?"

She looked unsure, which, in itself, was a miracle, as she worked hard to always keep up a confident facade, "Yes. Do you want us to be."

Glancing away while he responded so he wouldn't have to meet her big green eyes, "Yes."

"So that's it, then. We're together."

"Yes."

"Best friends first, though. Right?" she queried nervously.

"Of course," Ace replied easily.

A mischievous smile formed on his face, and before Emmy could react he leaned over and pecked her on the cheek, "I can do that now whenever I want. _Yes_!"

He startled Emmy badly enough that that she didn't move for a moment, so he stepped in, "You know, I think I'll write a song about you. Blonde haired beauty, has a nice ring to it…"

"Ace."

"And I _have _to comment about big green eyes…"

"Ace."

"Hmm, but it's so different from my normal songs…"

"Ace!"

"What?" he said, seeing her for the first time in a minute or two.

"There's such a thing as too much lovey dovey-ness. I recommend you not go there, or I might have to demote you from your new rank."

His face whitened at the comment, and she smirked, _I might have to use that card more often_…

They were about halfway across the green, and a sly grin broke out onto Emmy's face.

"Hey Ace?"

"Hmm?"

"Wanna race to the arena from here?"

"You're on," he said confidently, "I'm gonna win."

"For the first time ever," she said with a snort, "I'll beat you on the way there _and_ in the arena. I beat you at everything."

"Except archery contests," he muttered under his breath.

She took off running at the comment, pretending she didn't hear his truthfully embarassing words, and he took off after her yelling, "Hey! That's not fair! You didn't say go!"

His words were lost to the wind as the two best friends raced to their training.


	16. The Gap Between Them

**I know, I know... I'm a day late with the update, but I've been busy. Here's your next update. I am working on something with Teddy Zhang, so I haven't completely forgotten about him, it's just hard to come up with things for him to do considering her lives on the opposite side of the country. Remember, you guys can submit ideas, and if I find them to be in character, I might turn them into a one-shot featured here. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_April 19th, 25 years after defeating Gaea_

She glanced through the window into her room. It was dark in there, as it should be. Thankfully, it looked like Aiden had done his job. The cool night breeze chilled her skin, which was more exposed than she would've liked. A lock of straight brown hair flew in her face, and she tried brushing it aside, but it blew right back where it was. She huffed.

With only the starlight to guide her, Belle opened the window with the kind of practiced grace that can only be achieved through repeating an action many, many times. She willed the winds to direct her into her room, rather than hold her outside her second story bedroom. Once her feet had touched the plush carpeting, she turned and closed the window silently behind her. Any noise could send her parents scurrying into the room.

Exhausted from her busy night, Belle moved slowly towards her bed. She flopped onto the soft pillows, careful for her head to land on the so called 'party pillow', whihc was permanently stained with make up smudges. She was planning on changing in a few moments when the lights flicked on. Her eyelids, which had just fluttered closed, shot open, and she sat bolt upright, wincing at the suddenly bright lights, to find her parents standing in the doorway. Styx.

"A party?" her mother spluttered, "You've been attending parties without telling us?"

Belle's dad, Jason, put an arm comfortingly around his wife's shoulders, "Belle, you better not have done anything regrettable."

"I didn't," she said confidently. And it was true, too.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem as if her mom, Piper, believed her. She raised an eyebrow at her daughter, Cherokee features contorted in an expression of fury while her multicolored eyes flashed dangerously, "That better be true."

While her mother had opened her mouth to speak again while moving towards Belle, her husband, thankfully, restrained her.

"We'll discuss this in the morning," he said sternly, acting more Roman than she'd seen him in awhile, "But don't think you're getting off easy."

Belle felt a twinge of sorrow at seeing her parents so upset with her, but not enough to make her regret attending the party. They left the room with one last disapproving look, and Belle pretended to cry into her pillow. Once she was certain they were gone, she got up, face dry, and slipped out of her violet haven into her brother's bedroom.

He was reading a book on his bed, not even looking up when she entered the room. Aiden was aware she was there, though, she could see the tension in his shoulders and the slight furrow of his brow. She stood in the doorway.

After a moment he still didn't acknowledge her, and she sighed, "Aiden."

He suppressed a flinch at the sound of her voice cutting the silence. Innocently, he responded, "Yes?"

"You didn't cover for me."

"So what if I didn't?" he said testily.

Feeling uncomfortable in her shorter-than-she-would've-liked shorts, she twirled her hair around her finger, "Mom and Dad caught me."

Aiden wondered how she looked so calm about this, going so far as to nonchalantly twirl her hair as if it didn't matter, "Well maybe you shouldn't have gone to the party!"

Resisting the urge to scream in frustration, Belle took a deep breath, "I had to."

"Why?" Aiden nearly yelled at her, but he caught himself, "I've never understood. Why is it so important to go to these parties. Is it to protect your popular girl reputation? To drink too much and flirt too much? To do things our parents don't approve of?"

"No," she said, hurt by the mocking tone that creeped into his voice. He was her twin, her other half, why couldn't he see it?

"Then why?"

_Because,_ she wanted to say, _I need to be there for Lily. To stop her from doing something regrettable. She's come close, dangerously so, I wouldn't stand it if something happened because I wasn't there._

But Belle couldn't say any of this, so she painfully held her tongue, looking gloomily down at her feet.

_She lied to me_, Aiden thought when he saw this. He could see the conflicted look on her face. His sister was only doing these things to be popular. Having never understood her fascination with being a part of the 'in' crowd, he ran a hand through his blonde hair. Nothing he could do seemed to shift her thinking. Heck, he'd even asked Jacob's sister Emmy for advice, and even with her reputation of intelligence she'd been unable to come up with anything he hadn't already tried.

"I knew it," he said dejectedly. Aiden walked over to his sister, and closed the door promptly in her face. She wasn't really his sister anymore.

Staring at the stark white wood, Belle wasn't sure what to do, either. She wanted desperately to open the door, calling for him to wait. But what would she say? _Hi, sorry I can't tell you why but Lily made me swear on the River Styx never to explain._ That would sound hollow, fake. Idiotic. How could she ever make it up to her brother? The rift between them wasn't his fault, it was all her doing.

Lowering her hand slowly from where she'd been poised to knock, she turned her back on her brother, longingly staring at the door, wishing it was gone with the chasm between them. If only they could go back to simpler times, she thought as she walked slowly back to her room, when they were young and inseparable. Walking into her own room and closing the door behind herself, she reached the decision.

_I will spend day and night trying to come up with a way to explain it to you, and until then, I won't bother you, or do or say anything to you until I come up with a way to close the gap between us, _she thought sobbing silently onto her pillows, _I swear it on the River Styx._


	17. Tremor

**Hey guys, featured this time, we have Teddy Zhang! I know you haven't seen him in awhile, and I'm sorry for that, but he wasn't flowing. At the bottom of this chapter will be a list of the seven's children, and who is who's child, because Princess Andromeda II pointed out it was getting a little confusing. Sorry for that, and here you go! Also, I noticed I have over fifty reviews on this story. Thank you guys so much for that, I always love receiving feedback! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Review, suggest, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Friday, April 7th, 14 years after defeating Gaea_

Teddy Zhang had been around horses all his life. With a mother who loves them as much as his does, who couldn't have been? He'd helped her train unicorns, played with hippocampi and even befriended Arion, but these horses were on a whole other scale. Vaguely, he remembered visiting them before. In his mind he could remember the fragile feathers and soft down being seen from afar, but he wasn't allowed to go near them for fear that the young child might hurt their wings. Now, he was seven, and much to his delight he was finally allowed to go near them.

Twice a year, his parents went to visit Camp Half-Blood and the city of New Athens, and twice a year these equines had been taunting him. He wanted to go play with them so badly, yet he never was allowed to. The whole dilemma was infuriating.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Saturday, April 8th, 14 years after defeating Gaea_

It was the second day of their ten day trip when he first got to meet the pegasi. Physically, they all had a similar build, one his mother informed him belonged to Messara horses. They were all a hand or two smaller than the average unicorn, something that probably helped them to fly, and they were well built. They were a variety of colors, ranging from bay to black to gray, with a variety of patterns marking their coats. Teddy was fascinated.

He helped his mother when she fed some of the horses and cleaned their stalls, and watching how she cleaned them and their wings. Imagining what their soft feathers would feel like if he touched them, Teddy couldn't wait for the next day when he would be allowed closer to them.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Sunday, April 9th, 14 years after defeating Gaea_

When they got to the stables the next morning, there was a slightly different variety of pegasi, as some were being used for lessons, and others that were out the day before were back in their stalls. Teddy walked up to the one in the closest stall, vaguely noticing the sign labeling it Whirlwind. The gray stallion poked his head curiously out of its stall as Teddy approached. Unfurling his fingers, Teddy let the pegasus sniff his hand while he stared, entranced, at it's small face. The stallion whinnied, and Teddy reached out to pet it, feeling the soft fur of its face and neck. That morning, his mother showed him how to properly groom a pegasus so as to not hurt it's wings. She even let him touch a few of their feathers, which he found hypnotically soft.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Wednesday, April 12th, 14 years after defeating Gaea_

The fourth day of their trip they were visiting people again, and Teddy got to do a little rock climbing on the lava wall. It was cool and all, but he was still disappointed that he wasn't allowed to visit the pegasi that day. The fifth day of their trip passed in relatively the same way. Finally, in Teddy's mind, he got to visit the pegasi again on the sixth day.

This time, while he still enjoyed spending time with all of the pegasi, he befriended a certain colt. The two year old pegasus was bay colored and was called Tremor. His coat was mainly a dark caramel, but the colt's wings, mane and tail were black, and he had black socks on all of his legs. Teddy spent most of the time they visited the stables that day caring for Tremor, and most of the next, too.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Friday, April 14th, 14 years after defeating Gaea_

On the eighth day of their trip he was thrilled because he got to try riding a pegasus. She was an old, dusty brown mare. While Teddy would've preferred a younger, more energetic ride than the laid back she-horse, all of his distaste for her vanished when she took him off of the ground. He loved the exhilaration of flying through the air on her back.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Saturday, April 15th, 14 years after defeating Gaea_

The ninth day he convinced his mom to let him ride Tremor. While the colt was a green broke, meaning he was just barely trained and not very experienced, even at seven, Teddy was a skilled rider. He calmed the fears of his mom by saying he can turn into a bird if something goes wrong, neglecting to tell her that he can't necessarily do it consistently. Fortunately, the whole ordeal went well, with only minor quirks when Tremor didn't understand or feel like obeying a signal.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Sunday, April 16th, 14 years after defeating Gaea_

Finally, it was the tenth and final day of the family vacation. They spent the morning with the horses again, for Teddy loved the pegasi too much for his parents to tell him he couldn't, and then the rest of the day visiting people and saying goodbye. It was around seven when Hazel and Frank decided it was time to go.

"Okay," he nodded then took off running towards the camp, much to his parents bafflement. Hazel ran after him the normal way while Frank turned into a cheetah and started chasing his son, who was also a cheetah, down. Later they'd find out this chase caused varying degrees of panic and amusement throughout the camp, but at the moment Frank was focused on catching his only son. When his son finally turned human again, he was standing in the stables outside of Tremor's stall.

"You're gonna love it," Teddy was saying, "Everyone's, well, almost everyone's really nice, and it's always warm. There's lots of fields for you to romp around in and even a stable for you to stay in."

Tremor nickered and nuzzled Teddy's hand, and the latter proceeded to produce a sugar cube that the horse ate greedily.

Frank stood cluelessly watching while he waited for Hazel to get there. A moment or two later, she did.

"Hey, what's going on?" she asked, looking nervously for her child.

Frank gestured helplessly, and Hazel saw what was happening. Teddy noticed them watching and smiled a large, innocent, gap toothed grin.

"Hey Mommy, Daddy," He said excitedly, "Tremor can't wait to come back with us."

As if on cue, the colt nickered again.

Hazel walked solemnly over to her son, crouching down so they were looking eye to eye, "Teddy."

He looked at her with big brown eyes that almost melted her resolve, "Yes?"

"Tremor," she said, forcing herself to meet his eyes, "Well, he can't come with us."

"What do you mean he can't? Of course he can!" Teddy replied, obviously not understanding.

"He isn't ours, and we can't just take him. And we don't have a stall we can put him in. Besides, he's a pegasus, he won't like being cooped up," she explained as gently as she could.

Teddy's eyes watered, "So I can't keep him?"

"Sorry," Hazel said, trying to ignore Teddy's sniffles, "But no."

Tears ran down Teddy's face, he was only seven after all, "But- But we were gonna play together in the fields! And I was gonna bring him sugar cubes and ride him every day, and he would be _my_ horse!"

Frank had come over at some point and now he took Teddy's hand, "Tremor is a free horse, we can't just take him to New Rome with us."

His parents held him for a few moments until his sniffles died down, at which point he rubbed his bloodshot eyes and followed his parents back to the carriage, which still needed to be harnessed to Arion.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Tuesday, April 18th, 14 years after defeating Gaea_

A dark caramel speck was circling in the sky above New Rome, coming closer and closer every second. Many people were gathered in the streets, curious to see what it was. Even the Zhangs were watching the speck that had shown up a few minutes before. After a moment Teddy yanked his hands out of his parent's grasps, and ran to the center of the square so the speck could clearly see him. Citizens gasped as it swooped down, fearing whatever it was might harm the child, but the pegasus landed next to the Asian boy and nuzzled him, nickering softly.

"Tremor!" he exclaimed in ecstasy, "I knew it was smart to give you directions!"

**Percy and Annabeth:**  
**Emily (Emmy) Jackson (Oldest child of the seven)**  
**Jacob Jackson (Is two years younger than Emmy)**

**Hazel and Frank:**  
**Theodore (Teddy) Zhang (Is one year younger than Emmy)**

**Piper and Jason:**  
**Belle Grace (Is two years younger than Emmy, same as Jacob)**  
**Aiden Grace (Belle's twin, though she's older by three minutes)**

**Leo and Calypso:**  
**Rose Valdez (Is two years younger than Emmy, same as Jacob and the Grace twins)**  
**Hyacinth (Hya) Valdez (Is three years younger than Emmy, a year younger than her sister)**  
**Ember Valdez (Is the youngest child of the seven at five years younger than Emmy, two years younger than Hya and three years younger than Rose)**


	18. Arachne- No

**Hi everyone, here I am with another chapter of Family. Some of you may comment it's mean, but so are most of the things the Stolls do and everyone loves them, so yeah. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, I know I had a lot of fun writing it! Reviews are appreciated (hint), and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_March 7th, 19 years after defeating Gaea_

"I'm bored," Rose complained, dragging it out.

"Rose-"

"Bored!" she said, dragging the word out even longer than before. Pulling some black pipe cleaners out of one of the many pockets in her ever present cargo pants, she grew focused in occupying her hands with building something. Aiden, who was the one that had been interrupted, looked questioningly over at Jacob, who shrugged and shook his head, just as clueless. Both boys sighed.

The trio of friends were sitting three in a row on the porch outside of Rose's house. Since it was a Saturday in March, they had absolutely no clue how they were going to waste the day. Saturday was their day off from training, so it's not like they could go bash people's faces in with swords, as they liked to call it. The next Call of Demigods expansion pack was still being programmed, they'd already built every ship in Build a Warship, The Gods 4 hadn't come out yet (and they were bored with version 3), and Pocket Monsters Sampi and Epsilon weren't due to be released for a couple of months. They could always play Survivalbuild, but they were waiting for the 1.9 update as they were bored with 1.8. So, to translate their video gaming knowledge, they were bored with all of their video games, which was their go to way to, and one of their favorite ways to, waste time. They'd tried asking Rose's dad, who was the one to originally start building monster proof technology, to program them a new game, but that obviously was a flop, too.

After a few moments, Rose finished what she'd been working on and flung it at Jacob, who hadn't been paying attention to what she was doing. He let out a squeak and jumped upright. Not remembering in his momentary fear that they had been sitting on the porch step, he tried to back up, only to have his legs run into the step, and he fell right back onto his rear. It was then he realized the little black spider was made of pipe-cleaners.

"Rose!" he yelled.

She tried to look innocent, but her lips were curled up in a smile, "Yes?"

He glared at her and flung the fake spider she'd built back into her lap, "No."

"No what?" she said, sugary sweet.

"No that. No spiders, they make me nervous."

Aiden, who had been laughing silently on the other side of Rose, managed to stop long enough to ask, "Nervous?"

"Yes," Jacob said stubbornly, looking uncomfortable, "Nervous."

His friends laughed at him and he stuck his tongue out at them. After a few moments, the laughter died down and the three ADHD legacies sat in silence for a moment. It was Rose who broke the silence again.

"Hey Jacob?"

"Yeah?"

"I know your mom's deathly afraid of spiders, but is your sister terrified of them, too?"

Even though he could see where this was going, Jacob answered anyway, "Compared to them two, I'm only nervous, they're both practically hysterical around arachnids."

Rose muttered something along the lines of 'Wow, arachnids, big word,' which Jacob chose to ignore.

Aiden piped up again, "Why aren't you like that?"

Shrugging, Jacob said, "Spiders never really came after me like they went after Emmy, or, I assume, my mom."

"Do you know why?" Aiden asked curiously.

"Well Emmy said it was because I was too stupid for them to think I was related to Athena but-"

"Guys," Rose interrupted, not noticing the two glares sent her way, "I have an idea on what to do today."

Forgetting their annoyance, the two boys looked eagerly at Rose as she continued talking, "Jacob, we should prank your sister by building some fake spiders."

"No, no, a thousand times no," he said, his face pale, then added meekly when he saw his friends confused looks, "She's scary when she's angry."

Rose facepalmed, making a loud slapping noise, and Aiden looked at him strangely, "Dude, she's your sister. What's the worst she could do? Get you grounded?"

In an attempt to hide his embarrassment, Jacob put on an overly theatrical expression of amazement, "Whoa!"

"What?" Aiden asked looking around.

"The Voice of Wisdom just agreed to a prank!"

"I am not the Voice of Wisdom!"

Rose coughed, saying quickly during it, "A yes you are."

Scowling, Aiden pointed out, "Wouldn't that be Lake Face over here?"

This time it was Jacob's turn to scowl, "No, have you met me? Not wise. Not even close."

"True," Rose and Aiden agreed at the same time, causing him to scowl.

Oblivious to how insulted Jacob was by the conversation, she continued her planning, "So, Jacob, are you in? Because we need you to set things up. You're the only one with a valid excuse to be in the house."

He thought for a moment, "Okay."

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Jacob, Rose and Aiden were sitting three in a row, bored out of their minds. They were hidden inside of Emmy's closet, which had been upgraded with some technology stolen from Rose's dad so that they could hear Emmy, but Emmy couldn't hear them. While it was guaranteed Emmy would be up soon, as Jacob had told her in passing he thought he saw a new book she'd been waiting for came out, and he knew when she wasn't using it she kept her Fireball in her room. So, if she wanted to download the eBook, she'd have to come in.

Jacob mulled over the plan while he waited for his sister to arrive, and he assumed the others were doing the same. They'd spent the afternoon putting this together. Rose had crafted some of the parts they needed, like the remote she was gripping tightly in her clenched fist, and programmed the spiders. Aiden had used charmspeak on her parents to keep them distracted while Jacob and Rose smuggled all of the technology they wanted out of the forge. Then, Rose and Aiden had waited on the ground below the window in Emmy's second story window while Jacob went inside his house and snuck into the fourteen-year-old's room. Rose had given Aiden the different pieces of technology, in order, to lift outside the window with the winds. He flew her up, who Jacob then let inside. He grabbed the devices from floating in midair while Rose did a quick assembly. At last, while Aiden flew himself inside, Jacob made a comment to his sister in passing that would make her enter her bedroom before joining his friends in the closet, which brought them to now.

He tapped his fingers impatiently on the nearest object, which just so happened to be Rose's knee. She glared at him, lighting the tip of her finger on fire. He stopped. Jacob was about to find some other way to entertain himself when Aiden spoke.

"Guys," he said, gesturing to the glowing tablet in his hands. They'd installed temporary cameras in case they had a hard time seeing through the slats of Emmy's closet door. "Look."

They watched on screen as Emmy entered her bedroom, and Rose smiled an impish grin she'd inherited from her father.

She pushed a button on her remote, and holographic spiders began to slowly climb up the walls. Rose was so glad her father had been experimenting in augmented reality. Emmy didn't notice the projected arachnids at first as she scrolled on her tablet, but once she did, it was obvious. She let out a pitiful squeak and began to move towards her door, her face deathly pale. That was when Rose pressed another button, and holographic spiders like those that were a third of the way up the wall began spilling out from under the door, causing Emmy to jump back onto her bed in fright.

Intermittently, there were robotic spiders amongst the ones coming from under the door, only about twenty or so total. They weren't overly complicated, just basic little androids the size of daddy longlegs that could pinch and produce silly string. Emmy began whimpering as her floor became covered in spiders and the ones projected onto the wall were about two thirds of the way up. Jacob, Aiden and Rose were cracking up in the closet at the sight of Emmy's terrified face, though Jacob will admit the sight was making him a little, okay, very, nervous. Rose pressed some more commands on her remote, and the spider androids began climbing up the comforter onto the bed. They began to climb onto Emmy, pinching her skin. After a moment, Rose had them begin dispensing silly string.

Jacob's sister was so terrified she couldn't move. Her green eyes were wide with terror, and her knees were pulled up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them. Jacob wasn't finding this quite so funny anymore, thinking maybe they went a little overboard, though his friends were still laughing hard. That was, until Aiden reached out with his hand and accidentally knocked over the stack of books Emmy kept in her closet. They fell with a loud crash, too loud to be muffled by the device they'd stolen from Rose's dad, and crushed the remote where Rose had accidentally left it on the ground. The holographic spiders covering the walls and floor disappeared, and the robotic ones crawling all over Emmy went limp.

Before the closet doors were viciously yanked open, Rose barely had time to say, "Oh Styx."

The three friends found themselves staring at a pair of very, very angry green eyes, and Aiden squeaked out, his voice a few octaves higher than normal, "You know Jacob, I see what you meant about her being scary."


	19. Debate

**Hey everyone, this time I was aiming for a sweet moment between Emmy and Annabeth. Sorry if Annabeth seems out of character, but I have a hard time writing her when she's caring. Sorry. I'm going on another week-long vacation starting Monday, so if updates slow a bit, that's why. No computers there. If you guys give me more reviews than the last two chapters, though, I'll upload my pre-written chapter before I leave, though I'll probably end up doing it anyway without the reviews. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome. :)**

**-ROC6**

_August 2nd, 15 years after defeating Gaea_

She forced herself to walk slowly into her bedroom. Gods, the little girl wanted to run all the way there, but she forced herself to walk slowly. With a practiced concentration she kept her face calm and collected, even smiling at her brother and her mom as she passed them. Her brother was oblivious to her even being there he was so glued to watching SpongeBob on TV, but she could see her mother shoot her a worried look. _Shoot,_ Emmy thought, continuing her trek to her bedroom. She didn't want them to see her cry. Emily Jackson, eldest child of two of the most famous demigods in the modern mythological world, wouldn't let anyone see her cry.

Finishing passing through the living room, and pointedly ignoring her mother's worried glances, Emmy climbed up the stairs, and turned into her bedroom, leaving the door open a crack. Flopping heavily on her bed, she traced her finger over the familiar stitching of a light blue butterfly on her white comforter, resting her head on the matching pillows. Now that she allowed her mask to crumble, the tears that had been threatening to spill wouldn't fall, much to her frustration. Her finger stopped it's habitual tracing.

_Why? _She thought, _Why couldn't I join?_ She wondered furiously, pounding her pillow with her fist before the sorrow of rejection set in again. This time she felt a hot tear slide down her face, which frustrated her further. She hated, _hated _it when people underestimated her intelligence. The nine-year-old was aware that it wasn't the end of the world, but she just _could not stand it._ So what if she was nine, that didn't affect her intelligence, just her real world experience, and regardless, she still deserved to be included.

Flipping over so she could stare at the fish stickers all over her bedroom ceiling, Emmy hated herself for crying over something so petty. It didn't even matter all that much, there would be other chances, so why was she so upset? Honestly, she didn't know, which added more frustration to the big ball of emotions swirling inside of her. She felt another tear slip down her cheek, and another, acknowledging she was crying without ever really processing the fact. It wasn't until she reached over onto her dresser to grab a tissue did she notice the presence in her doorway. The tears, which had mostly stopped at that point, began to flow swiftly again as the realization came upon her that she had been crying in front of someone the whole time, even though she was in her room, her sanctuary, where she should've been safe from prying eyes.

"Go away," she said, her voice, which was raspy from crying, breaking in the middle of the sentence.

Her mother said nothing, her face it's usual calm expression, walking silently over to Emmy's bed and sitting down next to her daughter, who was curled in a ball. Emmy felt her mother's arms wrap around her, and she let herself melt into the embrace. She felt warm and safe in her mother's arms, and she shifted positions so she was in more of a sitting position. After a few minutes of companionable silence, Emmy's tears started to slow again. It was then she felt the soft touch of her mother tilting her chin up so she was looking her mother in the face.

"What's wrong?" Emmy's mother asked, a worried glint in her steely eyes.

Emmy considered not telling her, but her mother had already watched her cry, and she needed to talk to someone, "I, well, you see-"

Her mother's lips twitched, "Maybe you should start from the beginning."

"Okay, Mommy. I went to your cabin, like I do every morning, and when I went inside this morning everyone was talking about this thing they'd planned," Emmy explained, "And I asked them what they were talking about and they said they'd planned this debate thing, and I was like 'Cool! Can I join?' and they said 'No way.' Then they talked more about it, like how it would be every Monday. Today's topic was sexism and I really wanted to join..."

Emmy trailed off with a lingering sniffle, afraid to look her mother in the eyes for fear of being laughed at.

Her mother moved a lock of blonde curls out of her daughter's face, "Don't cry over spilled milk, Emmy, there'll always be other things to do."

"But they let May Souder join!"

"The i- Eight-year-old?"

"Yeah, and I couldn't!"

Annabeth, while she was disappointed in her half-siblings insistence that a legacy couldn't be as smart as them, which Emmy had proved wasn't true time and time again, chuckled a little at her green-eyed daughter's ferocity, both trying to ignore and admiring how much like Percy she looked with that expression, "Well in that case…"

The younger of the blondes looked eagerly, a hyper-looking expression that definitely came from her father, to her mother, who was wearing her thinking face, her eyes stormy like they get when she's annoyed, "I'll go talk to them tomorrow so you can participate from now on, okay?"

Emmy nodded enthusiastically, "Okay Mom."

Her mother's mouth turned up a little, her eyes glinting metallically, "And if they still give you trouble, at training you can show you what Dad's been teaching you."


	20. Treehugger

**Hey guys, I'm back from vacation! Here's another chapter to Family. In this chapter, we really meet Ember Valdez, the youngest. In another chapter or two, you can finally meet Hyacinth, and you'll see why I put her off so long. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_April 23rd, 22 years after defeating Gaea_

The girl knelt on the ground, enjoying the earthy smell around her. It was a Saturday, but she didn't mind. This was what she liked to do. She ignored the hot sun beating down on her back, feeling the dirt caked beneath her fingernails. Carefully, she urged the soil around the sprout, careful not to damage any of its fragile leaves or roots.

Patting the soil down, she watered the plant before moving on to the next little sprout. She glanced at the others working around her. Her school had sponsored this in celebration of Earth Day, and she could see people all around the school and neighboring park picking up all sorts of litter and planting new plants and such. She was enjoying the cool feeling the soil left on her hands when she first noticed the footsteps behind her.

A loud voice spoke behind, "Hey look! Treehugger's playing in the dirt!"

Ember Valdez scowled, but her back was to the rowdy group of boys, so they didn't notice her reaction to their taunting. Even though she hated Andrew Hark, she never said anything back to him. She breathed in for seven seconds, then out for eleven, a trick she'd learned from her mother. She resumed spreading dirt around the blossom, carefully holding one of it's low-lying leaves out of the way.

A pair of rough hands grabbed her arms, two of Andy's goons, and yanked her arms in the air, causing her to pull the leaf off of the plant, and they turned her around to face their leader. She was careful to keep her face impassive.

"Come on Treehugger, it's a beautiful day, why aren't you hanging with your friends rather than some dirty plants? Oh wait, the plants _are _your only friends!"

The whole group of boys burst into raucous laughter, and Ember clenched her fists. It was times like these she really envied her sisters. They were never bothered like this. If they needed to, both of them could produce enough sparks to keep people like Andy and his friends at bay, but Ember, well, she wasn't all that gifted in the fire department. Sure, she'd discovered a while back she couldn't be burned, could create some light and could create some heat, she couldn't do enough with fire to intimidate anyone or scare them off, and all the powers she'd inherited from her mom was focused more towards healing and growth rather than combat. So, long story short, Ember didn't have the natural defenses like her sister's did, so she was often considered weak purely because of it.

Andy had taken a break from trying to provoke her and was talking to his buddies, "No way she'd the daughter of the Leo and Calypso. She's such a weakling."

Point proven. Even though Ember couldn't produce fire like her sisters, her temper was just as fiery, she was just the best at controlling it. Her small fists, and yes, like her eldest sister and father, she was short, too, were trembling with suppressed rage even as her voice was completely flat and steady, "Just because your father is the war god doesn't mean you have to act like a jerk."

He snorted, "Yeah, and just because your parents are famous doesn't mean you should act so high and snooty."

His goons laughed at his pathetic joke.

Ember stood there in silent fury as Andy continued to crack jokes at her expense with two of his friends holding her where she was. Eventually, he noticed she'd been silent for awhile.

"Hey Ember, cat got your tongue?" he taunted, walking over to her. Since his assistants were pinning her arms to her side, she was unable to defend herself at all when he reached over and grabbed her chin. She knew he wouldn't do anything too vile, they were all twelve, after all, but she still hated him and the way his hands grabbed at her.

"Come on Birdie! Sing!" He said, frustrated by her lack of reaction and trying to taunt her into it, "Oh no, wait, you can't. Your voice is so horrible they don't let you sing in class!"

She almost didn't catch herself before she smirked, instead remaining stoic. He was just getting bored again when she stopped clenching her jaw and let her mouth fall open. _If he wants me to sing, he better be ready for it._

Mentally, she quickly filed through the songs her mother had taught her to concentrate her power before deciding that she'd let it out through a few free notes instead. Ember was aware the effects were significantly weaker when she was using the magic inherited from her mother to harm, but she knew it'd be enough to drive them away for now.

She took a deep breath and sung, without any words, a short melody, only four or five notes long. Nothing that would hurt them, but enough to make them scared enough to run. Magic wasn't allowed in school, so it was only when they caught her away from the teachers could she defend herself this way. Once Ember was certain that they were gone, she knelt gain in the dirt she'd been working with.

The little sprout was wilted from having its roots partially uncovered during the whole ordeal, and the leaf she'd accidentally pulled off was lying in the dirt. She hummed softly one of her favorite tunes as she covered its roots with soil, and before her eyes it righted itself, regrowing its leaf and even growing about half an inch taller. Ember smiled, and moved onto the next plant, continuing diligently the volunteer work.


	21. Manipulation

**Here guys, I know you've been waiting for it, so I give you Hyacinth. You'll be able to judge by the last part of this one-shot why I dislike writing Hyacinth so much. As always, guys, I'd love to hear your opinions on my writing and characters, and also, I noticed I have over sixty reviews for this story, which is way more feedback than I thought I'd receive for it this far in, so thank you guys so much. :) Have a cookie. (::) I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_October 7th, 17 years after defeating Gaea_

The little girl listened to the story with wide eyes, "He crashed into your dining table?"

Her mother smiled caringly at her, "Yep, and I yelled at him for it."

"Cool."

"Sorry, Hya, that's all for tonight," her mother said, drawing the covers over her and planting a kiss on her forehead.

"Aw, but Mom-"

"Goodnight, Hya," her mother said, sweeping the bedroom door closed.

"Nighty night Mama," Hyacinth said, like always.

She rolled over so she was staring at the flower shaped nightlight her father built for her, enjoying the warm glow it cast over the room. She loved it when her parents did things for her. Since she was the middle child, she wasn't the cutest, so that didn't earn her extra attention, and she wasn't as powerful or skilled as Rose being that she was a year younger. Hya always felt as if she was overlooked by her parents, and everyone else overlooked her because of how creative and fiery Rose was, or how beautifully Ember could sing. Hyacinth cherished every bit of attention she got. She couldn't wait until school tomorrow when she could tell more of her parents' adventures to her friends.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_October 8th, 17 years after defeating Gaea_

It was recess, and Hya's best friend, Jared, was out sick, so the third grader needed someone else to play with. She walked up to a group of three or four girls that seemed particularly interested in her story that morning when she told it to some of her classmates, so she figured she'd ask them to play.

"Hey," she said walking up to them, "Can I play with you guys? If you let me play I'll try to come back with a longer story tomorrow."

The girls shrugged, and one of them replied, "Okay."

Hyacinth Valdez beamed.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_October__ 8th 17 years after defeating Gaea_

"Hello?" Calypso answered curiously, surprised to be receiving a call from the school all three of her children went to.

"Are you a Mrs. Calypso Valdez?" A nasally voice asked from the other end.

"Yes," Calypso replied, wanting to get on with it, "And you are calling because?"

"We've noticed some troubling behavior from your child Hyacinth."

"Oh?"

"Yes, well, the teachers on recess duty observed her bribing some of her fellow students today, and it's not the first time we've witnessed her doing this. WE wanted her taken to the guidance counselor, but we need your permission."

Calypso's face flushed, "That's what this is about?"

The nasally voice sounded taken aback, "Yes. We find it concerning."

"Well I don't, I find it to be acceptable enough to handle this at home. Good day," she said hanging up her cell phone. Honestly, modern people get worked up over the tiniest things.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_August 27th, 25 years after defeating Gaea_

Hyacinth was bored. She sent another text to her friends with her left hand, doodling on her note paper with her right so her teacher thought she was paying attention. Gods, he was so _boring! _Didn't he know that nobody cared? It was only the first day of school, and she already knew she would hate his class. Great job, Teacher.

Finally, the bell rang, and Hyacinth grabbed her stylish new lunch bag before heading to the cafeteria. She surveyed the tables before choosing the best one. It was the first day of her junior year in high school, and she wanted it to be her best year yet. So it was going to be.

She walked over to the table, noting how many seats were left and deciding it was enough. She glanced at the boys sitting there, and decided they were all acceptable, all except for one. Micky. He was _Jared's_ friend. Even in her mind, the name burnt her like acid. She sat down and looked patiently across the table at Micky until she had his attention.

"Yes?" he said, finally noticing her.

"Why don't you, ah, come sit over here?" Hya purred, knowing he wouldn't resist.

Still, his brown eyes narrowed at her as he moved so he was sitting next to her on the bench.

She embraced him, angling so the other guys would think they were kissing, before she whispered in his ear, "Remember that time in eighth grade where you were hanging out with me and _him_ and you ate so much candy you threw up and I said I deleted the video?"

He nodded mutely and she smirked, "Well, I didn't. And unless you want that video up on Instagreek with every person I know tagged, you might want to find a new table."

Micky nodded again before fetching his lunch and mutely leaving the table.

"Bye Micky-poo!" she called, wiggling her fingers at him. He didn't react.

By now some of her friends had started arriving at the table, so Hyacinth picked up her lunch bag.

"Hey girls, look, isn't it so stylish?" she said, then added an air headed giggle for good measure.

She heard of chorus of 'Oh totes yes!' and 'Adorbs!' before they moved onto their teen celebrity gossip.

Hya checked her work, since they were required to sit at the same table for the rest of the year. A table in the front of the cafeteria by the window, full of her friends and cute guys. This was going to be a fun year.


	22. Hate You

**Greetings, everybody, her you guys get another chapter. I figured I should stay away from Calypso and Leo's children for a chapter or two even if you guys want to see more of Ember and Hyacinth simply because they starred in the last two chapters. In other news, I've been stockpiling chapters for this, so you guys should be able to get consistent updates once school starts again. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and stay awesome everyone.**

**-ROC6**

_9th, 24 years after defeating Gaea_

Jacob stared at the ceiling. Not that it was all that interesting, but he was staring at it like you do when you need something to stare at. Like when you're thinking hard about something, and you're facing something, and everyone thinks you're staring at it, but you aren't really seeing the whatever it is you're looking at. That's how Jacob was looking at the ceiling.

What was he thinking so hard about? Aiden and Belle's birthday was coming up in a few days, and later that day would be the party. It was one of those home style parties that's somehow better than any public venue you could've gone to. Jacob was excited for the party, but here he was, a few hours before the scheduled start time, with absolutely nothing to do until he had to start the walk over to the Graces'.

Each twin had agreed that for their seventeenth birthdays, and yes, though Jacob would never admit it, they were older than him, that they would only invite their best friends, so the total head count was five. Him, Aiden, Rose, Lily and Belle. It wasn't any different than any other birthday party they'd had over the years, and yet, somehow, he was more excited for it than he'd always been in the past.

It wasn't the party itself, though, that had captivated his interest so intensely, rather, he was toying with the idea of the why. Why he was so excited for it. So much more nervous than he should be around his best friends and an acquaintance. Or two. He had actually thought about what he was going to wear. That in itself should point out that something was wrong. He _never_ did that. He usually just grabbed the shirt on top of his drawer and a pair of black shorts before throwing on (sometimes mismatched) socks. But today, he actually thought. He opted for his favorite shirt, a blue one with a surfing clown fish wearing sunglasses on it.

So why was it this small party was so entrancing to him, he wondered. It wasn't Rose or Aiden that caused this feeling. Naw, he always hung out with them. He was even used to the third wheel feeling he sometimes got around them. Honestly, they're worse than his father. Seriously, kiss already, everyone can tell! Anyway, he knew it wasn't them giving him this feeling. He didn't really know Lily (or particularly like her) but he had met her, so it couldn't be nervousness at being forced to socialize with someone he didn't know. So that left this feeling to be stemming from Belle. But he hated her, right?

Rose certainly hated her. She had said 'I don't care if Lily has charmspeak, it's still your actions, so it's still your fault.' Jacob had agreed with her. But he wasn't so sure anymore. he wanted to hate her. She left them in the dust, choosing a different, cooler friend group once they hit middle school. _But was it really her fault? _the stubborn little voice that had been appearing more and more often recently queried him. He wanted to answer with a stubborn yes, but he found he couldn't bring himself to. The force behind the little voice brought forth memories of how they were so close in elementary school, then in middle school the had none of the same classes so she was practically friendless outside of lunch. Could they really blame her for wanting to have other friends?

He knew his past self would've been disgusted with him for thinking like this, yet he couldn't channel any of that disgust now. It _was_ her fault. He was certain. Jacob hated her, scorned her. Never did he want to associate with backstabbing scum like her. But he couldn't get her out of his head. More and more often he'd find himself imagining what it would be like for him to run his hands through her soft brown hair. Jacob would find himself fantasizing about making her laugh, and hearing the unfiltered joy in it that could light up a room. He'd find himself daydreaming about the faraway look in her eyes that made them look as beautiful as the clear sky on a sunny day that appeared whenever she was focused on something important to her. And the list went on.

Whenever he thought about her, everything around him seemed less important, somehow, as if she was all that mattered. But he hated her, or so he told himself. Even her own twin didn't like her that much. If the person that's known her since birth didn't like her all that much, then it was obvious everyone else associated would hate her. And Rose did. Even Hyacinth, as unjustifiable her opinion was, thought poorly of Belle for her behavior. So Jacob hated her. She'd abandoned her brother and her best friends. She'd abandoned _him_.

The scar from long ago when she first started drifting away seemed somehow deeper recently, a wound that didn't seem quite as painful at the time, but was now hurting more than it had then. She had chosen to hang with another crowd, saying without words that they weren't good enough for her, that they weren't there enough for her. And the thought hurt Jacob at those times when he was weak. When he was hurt. When he considered that maybe they could be friends… Or something more.

But he hated her, Jacob thought insistently once more. He had never felt so conflicted about any other person he'd ever met. It was one of the many things special about Belle. _No, _he told himself, ignoring the voice that hurt most when he was weak, _I hate her. I can never feel anything more._

Just then, a welcome distraction gently pulled him back to the present.

"Jacob!" he heard Rose's voice call from downstairs, "Get down here!"

He hauled himself off of his bed and downstairs. He felt like he just woke up from a dream, even though he'd been awake the whole time, "How'd you'd even get in here?"

She started out the front door, "I made myself a key three years ago, but that's not the point. I still don't have a present and I need your help."

Typical Rose, he thought, giving her a lopsided grin, "Wha' d'ya need? I'm all ears."

He was glad she had snapped him awake, what was he thinking? He definitely hated Belle.


	23. Crowded

**Alright, hi, and this has to be quick, I need to go. Thanks to a randomizer, it was decided I would put up this one-shot about Belle today, so here you go! I hope you like this one-shot, and remember, feel free to suggest ideas. Stay awesome everyone.**

**-ROC6**

"Hey, Cutie," some guy said, moving closer to her.

Frowning at him, Belle tried to push past him, but he determinedly blocked her way. She sighed.

"Wanna go have some fun in one of the spare rooms?" He asked, moving close enough she could smell the drunkenness in his breath.

"No," she said pointedly, trying once more to push past him. The teenager ignored her, and leaned in. Belle held her hand up in front of his face, and sent out a little electric shock. She smirked, it wasn't enough to hurt him, but he still went rigid and backed off.

Belle shook her head and continued delving through the crowd of teenagers. Curses on Lily for dragging her to another one of these 'small gatherings'. It was definitely past curfew, and Belle hated how she kept having to break curfew and rely on her brother to cover for her. She groaned at the thought of the earful her brother would give her this time around. _This better have been worth it, Lily._

Finally, she managed to make her way around all the people and through the main party room. Now she just had to figure out which one of these rooms Lily was having fun in. Thinking about what was more Lily's style, she surveyed the dimly lit hallway, eventually opting for the small broom closet.

She held the knob for a second, preparing herself to act drunk of it wasn't Lily, and opened the door. Woe and behold, Lily was leaning against the wall of the closet with some dude, and they were attempting to suck each other's faces off. Belle sighed, deciding her friend wasn't going to notice her, and reached over and delivered her fourth electric charge of the evening, though this was the first one directed at Lily.

Startled, Lily dropped her hands off of the guy's face, looking around and seeing her friend watching with an annoyed look.

"Hey!" she cried indignantly, "Thisch ich a private avair!"

Belle sighed in agitation, "You're drunk, aren't you."

"I am not!"

Sighing again, Belle thought aloud, "How am I gonna get you home? Your mom can't know you're drunk."

She surveyed the Asian girl, then grabbed her hand and pulled her from her fling's clutches, "You're coming with me."

"Com on! Leev a liddle!" Lily complained.

Being fluent in drunken Lily, Belle understood exactly what she was trying to say, and continued pulling her friend along while they were arguing, "No, I will not 'live a little.'"

Lily pouted under her heavy coat of makeup, "Yer no fun."

"I don't care," Belle said heatedly, starting to lose her cool as she maneuvered her friend through the overly crowded room, "Your mom will be home in a half an hour, and we need to get you home."

"Isch, like, only, five minutes walk," she said as they finished weaving through all of the teenagers, then, noticing they were passing the snacks, "Ooh! Don mine if I do."

Belle raised her eyebrow at her friend, "You're so drunk you can barely walk. It'll take more than five minutes, even if I have the winds help you. Besides, we need to change your clothes into something that doesn't smell like alcohol and some dude's cologne."

Lily pouted again, then nearly tripped. On nothing.

Belle sighed again, "Since your ability to walk is so horrible right now, this'll be closer than I like."

"No ih wone, I'm fine!" She said cheerily.

Shaking her head, Belle grumbled, "You promised me you wouldn't get drunk this time."

She was so focused on trying to walk normally that Lily didn't respond until they were at her house, "See! Normal! I don see wha yer problerm is."

"You'll hate yourself tomorrow," Belle told her friend, helping her through the one story house and into her bedroom, "You're probably going to have your worst hangover yet."

Lily flopped on her bed while Belle rifled through her clothes, then grabbed a pair of sweatpants and an overlarge One Direction tee, which happened to be Lily's favorite band.

"Here," she said, throwing the clothes at Lily, "Put these on, I'll go get a wet paper towel."

Hopefully, Lily's mom would be so preoccupied when she got home from her date she wouldn't pay much attention to her daughter, as Belle was pretty sure she was so drunk it was impossible for her to convincingly pass as sober. When she walked back into the room, she threw that paper towel at her drunken friend.

"Use this to clean off your makeup," Belle commanded as she put the forgotten heels in the closet, "I gotta go now, my brother is probably furious. Try not to kill yourself."

"Don worry! I wone!" Lily yelled as she exited the house, locking the door behind her, which only made her worry more.

Belle jogged home, glad she wasn't wearing heels, and snuck into her room as she'd done before. She flopped on her bed. Why did Lily insist on going to those stupid parties? Belle _hated_ them. She never ate or drank anything, even though Lily insisted on pigging out on the obviously spiked food. The only reason she even attended the parties was to keep Lily from doing something stupid, and she was still getting reprimanded because of it. _Arg, _Belle thought in frustration, _I hate this._ Every time she tried to refuse, Lily just charmspoke her into a promise, so it always went in circles.

Eventually, Belle got up and changed into her pajamas, before crawling into her bed. _I wish Lily would stop going to her crowded parties._


	24. Dear Ace, Dear Emmy 1

**Greetoids, everyone! Here's another chapter. I hope you all enjoy reading this. To give a little background, this takes after the summer where Emmy and Ace me at Camp Half-Blood. I don't really have anything else to say, so I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**  
_September__ 19th, 14 years after defeating Gaea_

_Dear Ace,_

_This is kind of weird. Not talking to you, writing the letter. The letter is weird. I would IM you, but Mommy and Daddy said that we shouldn't annoy the goddess by bugging her too much. Daddy also told me that we don't have an infinite supply of drachmas so IMing everyday would be bad. I'll probably give up on this and IM you before this even arrives in Chicago, but I figured I'd try._

_I don't know what to write here. It's a lot harder to write a letter than talk to someone face to face. I guess I'd say that I wish you were still here, not with your mom in the city. It's been a lot more boring now that school has started, and my brother and his friends have already gotten in trouble multiple times, (It's only the third week!) much to my mother's frustration. She said she might take his sword away, which I'd pay to see. He treats that thing like it's his baby, even though he only got it this summer. I really don't understand it._

_My teacher here is really nice, she said I was one of the smartest third graders she's met. Is your teacher nice? I hope they are, otherwise that would suck. I've been hanging out with some of the other third grade legacies and demigods, and they're really nice, but none of them are as cool as you. Are you making new friends? Or are you hanging with old friends from before you found out you were a demigod this summer? I hope they aren't going to replace me as your best friend. Then I'd be sad._

_In third grade we're allowed to start taking a string instrument, so I started playing the violin. I just got mine, and it's this pretty brown color. Not yucky brown, but like, Reeses Peanut Butter Cup brown. I shouldn't have described it that way to you. Now I'm hungry. Mom seems really proud of how I play, but I can see my Dad tries not to wince every time I practice._

_In other news, I finally, _finally, _managed to hit the target in archery lessons! Go me! I can see you snickering, by the way, and I would like it if you stopped. Not everybody has an archer god for their dad._

_Jacob's laughing at me because I left the door open to my room while I was writing this (big mistake) and caught me sticking my tongue out at the paper. Now he's running to tell our parents I kissed it. Don't you just love siblings? Anyway, I can't really think of anything else to write on here, so I think I'll just end it here and hope you don't laugh at me when you get it._

_Your friend,_

_Emily (Emmy) Jackson_

The young blonde looked down at her letter in satisfaction, then proceeded to address the envelope like she'd learned in school and put it with the pile of things to be mailed soon.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_September 28th, 14 years after defeating__ Gaea_

_To: Emily_

_You're right, the letter thing is weird, but I kind of like it. I can't believe you IMed me five times between the time you mailed your letter and the time it got here. Don't you think that's a lot? But(t ha!) I don't mind._

_To tell you the truth, I wish I was still there, too. Camp is a lot funner. And I have to make all new friends again since I had to switch schools. Something about my teachers thinking I needed a special class at this new school. All the kids in my class aren't smart like you and the teacher talks really slow. I don't like her, she treats us like babies, and my classmates like it! Don't worry, by the way, no one here could ever replace you as my best friend. _

_About the violin, don't kill anyone. I've heard you sing. My school also starts offering music at third grade, but they wouldn't let me take one until my mom did a lot of yelling and phone calling. Now I'm also learning the violin. My music teacher called me a prod-i-gee. I don't know what it means, but she's always saying nice things about me. She's really nice, and I've heard her comment a couple times about me not needing to be with Mrs. Ledger, which I'm OK with, cause like I said, she treats us like babies._

_Also, my Mommy told me the other day she's off duty for a couple of months, so she'll be with me most of third grade, which is good. Gramps and Grammy-ma don't seem to like me. Also, other third graders are always like wow when I tell them Mom's a military medic. Is that normal? I've never really noticed it before. Also, I think I've been saying also too much._

_As for you hitting the target… Really? It's been two years and you only _just _hit the target? You got problems. I hit it at my first lesson, and got a bullseye at my fifth. How has it taken you this long? Also, can you tell me when you do it again? I'm putting three drachmas on a year and a half. How's your sword training going? Everyone already knows you'll be an expert with your knife, but nobody's ever seen you work a sword besides your family. _

_I'm kind of running out of things to write about that we haven't already talked about through IM, so I think I might just wrap this up here. So, respond soon, I guess, and stay safe, Emily. Don't let the spiders bite._

_Your _best _friend,_

_Ace Gordan_

_P.S. Tell my mom thank you for editing this for me. It was a mess before she looked it over._

Emmy smiled happily at the letter in her hand, she wasn't sure he'd be willing to respond, but the nine-year-old was glad he did.


	25. Owie!

**Hey-o everyone, I hope you guys have been doing well. Happy birthday to Percy, even if I'm a few days late for that. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Just wanted to thank you guys, there are almost fifty of you following this story, which is way more than I thought I'd get. Remember, you guys are welcome to suggest things for me to write, and if they're in character, I'll try to get to them. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Friday, August 21st, 20 years after defeating Gaea_

Calypso looked up from the book she was reading. Her ears picked up the sound again. It was a whimper, coming from down the hall by the entrance to her husband's forge. She placed her bookmark, a dried moonlace, in the pages of the book before setting it down on the coffee table her feet had been resting on moments before. Barefoot, she padded down the hall to where she knew one of her children resided. Did one of the little ones hurt herself on the stairs? She knew that Rose would be busy building away in the forge. She'd hardly left it except to cover her basic human (or, semi-human, anyway,) needs since she'd been granted permission to join her father a few weeks ago.

Another, louder, whimper caused Calypso to hasten her approach. She hoped her daughter hadn't hurt herself too much. To her surprise, standing at the bottom of the stairs was Rose. The five-year-old sniffled softly before noticing her mother at the end of the hall.

"Mommy," she said with a grimace before holding out her arm, "Owie."

"Why didn't you ask your father?" Calypso asked, examining the wound.

"I did," Rose said simply.

"Did you remember what I said?" She asked, still only half paying attention.

Rose thought for a minute, "About him being an ego-cen-tric in-a-tent-tive poopy head?"

"Mmm," Calypso responded.  
"Yes," Rose said blandly.

Calypso looked worriedly at her daughter's face, "Then why didn't you ask again?"

"I did," the Latina said, causing Calypso to sigh.

She shook her head, "How many times?"

"Twenty-three."

Calypso made a mental note to yell at Leo later, "Come on, Rose, let's go take care of your arm."

"Uppie?" she asked eagerly.

Her mother smiled, "Alright, you can uppie."

The child cheered while her mother scooped her up, "Come on, Sweetie, over here."

Setting Rose gently on the bathroom counter, Calypso asked her, examining once more the jagged cut, "How'd you hurt yourself?"

"On scrap metal," Rose said, as if it was an everyday occurrence.

"Alrighty," Calypso said cheerily, fishing in the cabinet for the so called 'boo boo' supplies.

She was aware she could easily heal her sniffly daughter with magic, but there were a few reasons she chose not to do so. The more obvious reason was she wanted Rose to know what to do if she ever found herself injured without anyone around. There were other reasons, though, that she was more reluctant to admit. The first one was that since she'd given up immortality upon leaving her imprisonment on Ogygia, it had become more draining to perform magic that she used to do without feeling any of her energy being sapped. Another reason she despised admitting was that she wasn't eternally a teenager anymore.

"Okay, Sweetie, first we're going to clean it so it doesn't get infected," Upon seeing her daughter's confusion, she explained, "That means it would hurt more."

"Oh," Rose commented, "Ow."

Calypso held her daughter's arm under the running water, making sure the water was warm as she did so.

"If you ever get a wound that bleeds a lots, press on it to slow it down," she said as she put some soap on a tissue and dabbed at her arm.

Rose winced when the soap went into her cut, and Calypso murmured soothingly, "I know, Sweetie, I know. You're doing great."

"Alright, next I'm going to rub on some of this SolSolution," She narrated, dabbing some of the whitish, translucent paste out of the container and onto her finger. The mother began to rub some on Rose's cut, "The Apollo kids make it, it prevents infection and helps it heal faster. You don't need it, but use it if you have it."

She unwrapped a band-aid and stuck it on Rose's arm, "This keeps the Sol from rubbing off, and collects the blood if it starts to bleed again."

Calypso held up Rose's arm and kissed it right on the band-aid, "There, that should make it feel better."

She pulled out a container and a bottle after putting everything else away, and looked at Rose really seriously, "If you ever get hurt really bad, these are ambrosia and nectar, they heal wounds almost instantly, but don't use much or you'll burn up."

The black haired little girl nodded with wide eyes, and her mother kissed her forehead before lifting her up again, "Come on, Rose, let's get you a cookie for being so brave."

She fist pumped with her eyes sparkling, "Yes!"

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Rose examined the gash in her leg and once again cursed her naivete. Just because it hadn't happened before didn't mean it couldn't happen, which she was really regretting that she forgot. She knew, _she knew_, that the woods were stocked with monsters, even if they weren't as dangerous as some found in the mortal world, and she still wandered in unarmed. She tried to burn the monster, even threw some of her good screwdrivers. It wasn't until she found some oily old washers in one of her pockets that she managed to chase it off by setting them on fire and throwing them.

She sighed, limping over to her screwdrivers and gathering them up, they _were_ her favorites after all, and hobbled over to the path to Bunker Nine. It had grown worn over the years since her father first started using it, so now there was a visible trail. She just had to make her way there so she could get some ambrosia and nectar and-

The soot stained girl groaned remembering she'd already reached her godly food quota for the day. The whole story was too complicated to relay in a reasonable amount of time, but it involved Cabin 11, rope, a tree complete with angry dryad, obliviousness, a couple of hours, and a concussion quick-healed with the godly substances. So, Rose couldn't rely on godly healing. Great.

Looking down at her leg, Rose blanched. Bad, bad idea on her part. Thinking back, she realized she'd done just about everything wrong. She'd been unarmed, without medical supplies, and she hadn't told anyone where she was going. _Great job, _she thought dryly to herself.

Alright. She realized that since the healing wouldn't be instantaneous, she'd have to take care of the wound properly, and with the amount of blood the gash was leaking, and her limited medical knowledge and ability, she was afraid she'd pass out before she got there unless she slowed down the blood flow. She closed her eyes and thought for a moment, what was it her mom always told her? _If it doesn't stop bleeding, apply pressure to slow down the blood flow._

_Okay,_ she thought, leaning against a tree, _That doesn't sound too hard._ Rose pressed her hand onto the wound. She held it there for what felt felt like forever, but when she eventually lifted her hand, the cut was no longer gushing blood, rather, it was just giving off a steady drip. It might not seem like much, but Rose mentally cheered, feeling a lot more confident. She began limping her way to Bunker Nine, cursing the monster that caught her thigh with it's claws.

After an annoying amount of hobbling, she found herself at the door to the bunker. She attempted to light her hand, but it sputtered for a moment, which worried her. Maybe the injury was more serious than she thought. She tried again, and it lit with ease, causing her to sigh in relief. She walked into the enormous workshop, and sat down on one of the basic wooden chairs kept by the door. They were there in case you need one for reaching something, or accidentally lit yours on fire, which happened more than she cared to admit.

_Now what? _she thought wearily. Searching through her memories, she was glad for once that her mother taught her basic injury care, because she knew the next thing to do was clean it. _Okay, once again not too complicated, _Rose thought in relief, _Now I just need to find a place to… Ah!_ She could use the bathroom sink, or she could steal water out of her dad's 'mini' fridge. The bathroom was the better choice, but it was on the next level up, and her leg was feeling unsteady. While normally she could just hope for help to arrive, it was probably past curfew by now. She'd set out at dusk to pick up a small project so she could sneak into the home forge that night and work on it. So by now, curfew was probably well past.

As much as she wanted to just steal water bottles to wash her leg, she knew she should use soap simply because of all of the filth and germs that were likely on the monster's claw. She sighed.

Next, she knew, that she would put on any infection fighting cream or something that she had, but she had none with her, so she'd have to skip straight to the bandaging. After a few moments of thought she fetched a small knife and hacked off the ripped pant leg on her cargo pants. It was pretty much ruined, anyway. She emptied the pockets, transferring her various knick-knacks and such to her remaining pant leg, and she cut the sliced and bloody parts off of the fabric before finally ending up with a long strip of fire-proof fabric.

And next came the hard part: getting to the bathroom. Now that she could see the wound, she saw just how red the surrounding skin was and knew infection was coming. With a growl, she realized the stairs were out of the question. Normally, she loved riding the platform to the second level, but as she said before, her leg was feeling unsteady. Still, she limped over to it. She sat down on it, testing the cables. _I can do this, _Rose thought.

She pulled on one of the cables, as she had many times before, and she felt the platform raise a little. _This was going to take a while, _she realized, simply because she was only using her arms to haul the platform up.

After fifteen minutes of labor, five times how long it usually took, she was on the second floor. She hobbled over to the bathroom, hoisting herself up so she was sitting on the counter. The impish girl pulled some of the cheap paper towels out of the dispenser, wetting about half of them. After diligently washing the cut, Rose used the remaining paper towels to cover it with soap before rinsing it once more with water. Finally, she wrapped her leg with the chopped up pant leg, fastening the makeshift bandage with some safety pins she found in one of her pockets.

_Thank the gods Mom taught me that stuff_, she thought when she was _finally_ done. For the ADHD legacy, the whole dilemma seemed to have taken forever. Rose hopped down from the counter, wincing slightly as she landed on her wounded leg. Still, it felt a lot better now that she'd cleaned and bandaged it. She walked around a little, even doing this weird, half-limp, half-jog thing, and decided to set out for home. Unless she was really involved in a project, she preferred not to spend the night in Bunker Nine. She swiped the project she'd wanted, a bronze flower, and was about to walk out into the woods when she remembered.

Rose swiped a knife off of one of the workbenches, and set off towards Camp and New Athens in her half-jog pace, careful to keep an eye open for monsters that might be lurking in the trees. Even though she knew her parents were going to kill her for this tomorrow, she didn't care at the moment. Today, she just wanted to get home so she could sleep in her own bed and thank her mother for teaching her all of those things.


	26. What Do You Mean You Let Me Win?

**Greetings everyone, here's your next update. Remember, I'll take suggestions for this as long as they're in character. Good news for you, even though school starts next week for me, I have a lot of chapters for this half- or pre-written, so you should still get consistent updates at least until we're halfway through October. This I think is the first thing involving an action scene that I've actually put up on FanFiction, so I would love some feedback on how I did. If it's stretching it too much to analyze like I have Emmy doing, let me know, I was sort of basing that off of how a pitcher or a batter or someone can analyze what they're doing wrong and such in the middle of their motion/swing. Wow, this is getting long, so I'll stop here. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome!**

**-ROC6**

_Tuesday, June 18th, 20 years after defeating Gaea_

"Ha!" he yelled as Emmy's knife clattered loudly to the ground, "That makes, oh, 327 for me and zero for you!"

"Jacob," Emmy said tiredly, "It's rude to gloat."

"Yeah, but you haven't even beat me _once_! And everyone used to call _you_ the Combat Prodigy. Pft, yeah right. Like that could ever be true," he continued to gloat, oblivious to his sister's growing agitation.

She growled at him, but he didn't notice.

The sun was beating down on them from its post in the sky, and the arena was reasonably crowded. To Emmy's frustration, the more her brother gloated, the more people's attention he was attracting. And more of them looked at Emmy curiously when they heard what he was saying. Which was wounding her pride, something she did not take kindly too. They would probably begin to think that if her brother could beat her, they could beat her, and that was not a philosophy she'd be happy with.

"Jacob," she said, her voice a deadly calm he'd learned not to mess with, "Stop gloating, now."

"Naw, 'cause I beat my sister! I beat my sister!" he cheered tauntingly.

Noting that people were starting to gravitate over to see what was going to go down, Emmy muttered, "Well it seems as though you haven't inherited any of your father's humility."

Having earned some chuckles from the comment, Jacob asked, curious what the tittering was about, "What was that?"

"Oh, nothing," his sister said nonchalantly. Then, her voice grew a cold edge, "Stop, Jacob. Don't gloat again."

He did what would've been a spit take if he'd been drinking something, "Oh, like you can do something about it?"

A chorus of 'ooh, burn!'s rose from the audience, and the twelve year old blonde threw her hands in the air, "Yes, Jacob, I can!"

"No you can't," he said in an _uh, duh_ voice, "I've beat you 327 times."

He'd annoyed Emmy a bit too many times at this point for her care about being polite to him, "No! I _let_ you win 327 times!"

After making a sound like he was holding back a laugh, Jacob said like he couldn't believe it, "Wha' d'ya mean you let me win?"

His sister laughed coldly, "I mean just that, I let you win. But now I think it's time for you to learn some humility."

"Um, no," Jacob said, as if she was stupid, even though everyone assumed she was smarter than him, "It's _you_ who needs to learn some humility."

"Alright," she said, sounding calm again, "Then let us duel."

Although he laughed, Emmy could tell this whole situation was making her brother nervous. A space was cleared for them in the center of the arena, and the got into fighting stances facing each other. Jacob drew his sword, and Emmy drew her knife, and they asked one of the onlookers to count them down.

"Alright, in three! Two! One! Begin!" she called. Everyone expected some sort of competition between the two siblings, but there was none. In a flash, Emmy darted in and disarmed her brother. The crowd murmured.

He pouted childishly, "Hey! I wasn't ready."

Emmy sighed, "Sarah!"

The demigod nodded, and counted again. This time, Emmy circled her brother. He complained he wasn't ready before. Well, if he attacked first, he _had_ to be ready. It was also likely her strategy from the first battle wouldn't have worked twice. Her eyes scanned her brother, noting the weaknesses and strengths in his fighting stance. For example, he held his sword one handedly, a little on the right side of his body since that was his dominant hand. Therefore, while the right side would be hard to hurt, his left side could likely be wounded easily if he was distracted. She could tell her brother was probably assessing her similarly. They _had_ had the same teacher after all.

After a few moments, he struck. She'll admit, he's good. He almost caught her off guard, but she had three more years of training than he did. Emmy blocked his strike with her knife, and almost immediately he struck at her left side instead, and she changed directions to match him. He took a few more jabs at her, but his arms were too stiff when he swung, so every time she blocked it she could see it jolt his arms uncomfortably. So on his next swing, when she blocked him, she tried to transfer her momentum to him, and she could see him wince at her success. While he was off guard, she knocked his blade out of his hand.

Emmy looked up at the stunned audience, "Did anybody time that?"

A gray eyed camper called out, "After the first strike it totaled two minutes and thirty-seven seconds."

"Thanks," she replied casually, then turned and looked at her brother expectantly.

He looked down, cowed, "I- I'm sorry for gloating, Emmy. I should've known you were better at this than me. Like everything."

She winced at his tone, "I'm not better than you at everything…"

"Yeah? Name something I'm better at," he said.

Emmy walked closer to him and put her hand on his shoulder before saying, quiet enough that the audience couldn't hear, "You're nicer than I am, and way better at making friends. You know when things have gone too far, and you notice more things about the people around you. Everybody loves you and thinks of you as a friend, and I've never seen you be mean to anyone but me. Those are only a few ways that you're better than me, okay? So don't ever say that."

He gave her a nervous smile, "Alright Emmy."

She nodded at him, then turned to face the audience. They parted for her as she moved to leave the arena. Emmy realized she'd gotten so wrapped up in her wounded pride that she'd forgotten he was her little brother, not her enemy on the battlefield. _I'll try harder to remember that,_ she decided. He didn't deserve all of the embarrassment she dished out to him, even if she thought he deserved some. She was almost out of the arena when she remembered.

"Oh, and Jacob?" she called with a smirk, "Try to relax your arms more when you swing."

He groaned, but she could hear the laughter in his voice as he stretched out the word, " Emmy!"


	27. I Didn't Know Your Song

**And school has officially started. No need to worry, though, I have enough chapters stocked up to make it at least halfway through October with no additional writing necessary. I figured it was about time we see Teddy again, so here's a one-shot featuring him. Remember, if you guys get the urge, you can submit ideas for one-shots, and, assuming they're in character, I'll try to write them. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Thursday, February 20th, 13 years after defeating Gaea_

It was late in the afternoon one day when Hazel pulled out some old tapes Nico gave her for her birthday one year. She was done with the unicorns and other equines for the day, and Frank wouldn't be home for a little while yet. The cassette tapes, which were old and well used, contained a few songs from when she grew up, and she was thankful her half-brother was able to track them down. She helped Teddy get settled at the kitchen table to do his homework, which was mostly a vocabulary worksheet, before walking over to one of the comfy armchairs in their New Roman villa.

There was a wooden end table sitting next to it that she plopped the radio on, a dinosaur that still had the capability to play tapes in a world where CDs were considered old fashioned. Hazel pressed some buttons to fire up the machine, and leaned back in her seat as one of her favorite songs started to play softly. She grabbed a blanket off of the couch. It just so happened that she grabbed one that was purple, like his father's old praetor cape. She'd made it for her son when he was a baby, taking care with the gold embroidery on it. It was a picture of an eagle with a spear in it's beak and a gem in each talon. Hazel wrapped herself in the well-loved blanket, closing her eyes and letting the memories wash over her.

Some of the memories Hazel had of her first life, back in New Orleans and Alaska, obviously weren't that happy, but there were some cheerful ones too. Like when she was hanging out with Sammy, for example, along with times like Mardi Gras, and some of her memories of her mother when Hazel was younger, before she had grown bitter as Hazel's curse grew stronger. Memories like those had always helped Hazel through tough times, like when she moved to Alaska. Besides having all of the open space to roam in and trying to catch Arion to pass her time, the hope that someday she'd see Sammy again helped her get through the times that eventually led to her death.

After twenty or so minutes, the tape had finished playing out all of the songs on the first side of the tape, and it cut off with a click. After a moment, Hazel pulled herself out of the blankets she'd nestled herself under, flipping the tape over so she could play its other side. Snuggling down under the blankets, she relaxed as the songs from her past began to play again. It hadn't even been five minutes since she flipped the tape to it's other side when a strange new sound caught her attention.

Hazel paused her tape and silently stood up, looking around as she did so. SHe wasn't worried about some unknown monster attacking, they were living in the heart of New Rome after all, and after a moment she discerned that the sound was a croaky, untrained voice warbling a tune. After a moment, she spotted the person singing. Gliding silently across the floor in her fuzzy socks, she noticed that all of Tedd's school supplies were cleaned up and packed messily inside his backpack. _He must have finished his homework while I was relaxing,_ she realized.

The seven-year-old boy had his eyes closed and was speak-singing, which was what everyone at that age did and thought made them the next Apollo. Hazel was pretty sure he hadn't noticed her stop her tape and come in, so she paused to listen.

"TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR!" he continued loudly, and she tried not to wince at his attempts at singing. _Well, _she thought dryly, _at least his voice seems to be a little better than Frank's is_.

Hazel let him finish that verse of song before she stepped in, "Teddy, you might want to tone it down a little."

The little Asian boy opened his eyes and blinked at her, eyelids flashing over his golden irises, "Hi Mommy. Why are you over here?"

"Well, Sweetie, I came over to listen to you sing. Why were you singing?" She said.

"Uh," the little boy said, cheeks tinged pink and looking embarrassed, "I didn't know your song so I started singing my own."

She smiled at how nervous he seemed about admitting this, "That's fine Teddy."

"But then…" he scrunched his eyebrows together, seemingly confused, "If it's fine then why did you come over here to investigate?"

Hazel thought quickly, "Because you were singing so wonderfully, Teddy, that I just had to come over and watch."

"Oh," the black-haired boy said, nose still crinkled up, then his eyes lit up, "Really?"

"Yes," she said with a warm chuckle, "You're just that good."

"Are you sure?" he asked, widening his eyes.

Hazel smiled warmly, "Yes, Sweetie."

He thought for a moment, "Are you sure you're sure?"

"Teddy," his mother said, crouching down so she was at his eye level, "I'm sure. And with a little practice, everyone in New Rome and New Athens will come to see you sing."

The Asian child hopped off of his chair and surged forward, his mother embracing him in a hug. Someday, she knew, people would be honest with him, tell him the cold truth, but he was young, and innocent, and besides, he had the cutest little panda face.


	28. Types

**Hey-o everyone, here's your next update. If anybody feels like reviewing with a child they want to see or something, that would be awesome, because I'm not really sure who you're looking to read about right now (with maybe Hyacinth coming up next?). That's pretty much all I have to say right now, so I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_October 2nd, 24 years after defeating Gaea_

Belle sighed, she hated how she always got mobbed by boys. She'd just finished having to turn down another boy. Somehow, news had got out that she was having a small birthday party, so everyone was afraid they wouldn't be invited, which they wouldn't, and boys were now clamoring for the currently vacant spot as her boyfriend. None of them interested her, and she always provided Lily with some sort of excuse other than the fact that she thought they weren't her type.

"Wait, let me guess," Lily commented, scrutinizing the blonde-haired boy walking forlornly away from them, "He had a speck of mustard on his upper lip. Or wait, was his one eyes fractionally larger than the other? Or was his hair too greasy?"

Belle blushed at her friend's mockery of her comments, "No."

"Then what was it this time?" The Asian girl asked in exasperation.

"His eyes were too blue," she said, though it sounded more like a question than a statement.

"His eyes were too blue?" Lily repeated incredulously, then she added in exasperation, "He was _hot! _What do you mean his eyes were too blue?"

The descendant of Jupiter cowered under the other legacy's glare, desperately thinking up an explanation, "Well, while blue eyes are nice, you don't want eyes that are too bright a blue otherwise it might become annoying to look at them frequently or for extended periods of time."

Scoffing, Lily pointed out, "You mean like yours?"

She turned red, "Uh…"

"You know, you've turned down a lot of delicious looking boy toys recently. Someone must have caught your eye," The other legacy said decisively, "Spill."

"What? No they haven't!" Belle lied.

The other girl rolled her eyes, "Whatever you say. Can you at least tell me what your type is so I can try to guess?"

"I do not have a type," Objected the first girl. She did _not _have a type, and it certainly wasn't a certain goofball her brother hung out with all the time.

"Can I at least get a few desirable features," Lily continued, "So I can at least take a guess as who he is?"

"Fine, how 'bout, uh…" _Inky black hair,_ the girl of Cherokee descent thought, "Dark hair?"

Her friend rolled her eyes, "How about something else, too?"

_Vibrant, laughing green eyes, _Belle resisted the urge to blurt, "Bright eyes, not some boring color like brown."

"Uh huh," Her best friend said, nodding her head slowly, "Anything else?"

_How cute his smile is when he's nervous, how goofy his overly large grin looks when he smiles at the weirdest of things, _she found herself picturing, "A nice smile."

"Mmm hmm," Lily said thoughtfully, "Can I get a character trait or two?"

"Um, how about no?" Belle suggested.

Lily gave her a look.

Throwing her hands up in exasperation, Belle said, attracting a few look from her fellow students, "Alright, fine! What do you want to know?"

The other girl smirked, "Can I get your favorite thing about him?"

She had to stop and think for a moment about that one. There were so many things she liked about him. Belle loved the way his eyes lit up when he talked about his favorite topics (like Pokemon), how he couldn't stand to see anyone else in pain. The way he stubbornly stuck up for his friends in any situation, no matter how stupid and reckless it seemed to do so. _Which doesn't include you, _a nagging voice said, _you abandoned him. He'll never like you now. _She pushed the voice away. She even liked the way he glared at her and tried to be mad at her like like his friend, even though she could tell he didn't really mean it.

"Hello?" Lily asked, waving her hands in Belle's face, "Earth to Belle, anybody there?"

She snapped out of her reverie, "Hmm?"

Her friend laughed loudly, "Gods, girl, you've got it bad!"

"I- What? No I don't!" Objected Belle, but she didn't sound certain.

"Uh, yeah you do," Lily said, making the face she must have been making a few moments ago, staring off into space dreamily. It looked a little stupid, she had to admit.

Belle shifted uncomfortably, "So maybe I do. So what?"

Lily, who had her thinking face on, ignored Belle's comment, "So, can I get that character trait now?"

"Will you stop bugging me if I give it to you?"

The Asian girl nodded, and Belle thought for a moment, before simply saying, "Funny."

Instead of rolling her eyes like Belle expected her to, Lily crinkled her brow together, which signaled she was deep in thought about something, and pondered for a few moment as they walked away from the cafeteria and towards their next class. _Uh oh, _Belle thought nervously, looking at her fellow legacy of Aphrodite, _Can she really figure it out from that?_

"Ah!" Lily said, her eyes lighting up and her hand shooting upwards and almost smacking Belle in the face. She smirked deviously, "I know who you like. It's-"

"BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!"

"Oh, look at that, the bell rang," Belle said, stumbling over her words, "let's get to class and forget this ever happened, okay? Come on, let's go. No dilly dallying."

"We can't do that!" Lily said, letting her friend pull her across the hall, "'Cause now I know who you like!"

Belle growled, knowing Lily was going to continuously hold this over her head.


	29. Sticks and Stones

**Sorry this is late in the evening (for me, at least), but I was busy. This has to be quick, so you know what I usually say. But hey, consistent updates, eh? Sorry if there are typos, like I said, fast. Hopefully, this will help you get a clearer image of what happened to Hya. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_June 19th, 22 years after defeating Gaea_

_Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me._

Hya didn't know where she first heard that saying, but it was something that had always resonated with her. What she had always taken from that saying is that what other people think and say about you should never affect you. It shouldn't change how you see yourself, and you should never retaliate for it.

Whoever said that was stupid.

Sure if it's some random stranger that walks up to you and says you're stupid, or something, then Hya guesses it's okay, but if your best friend yells at you, and they've known you for years, shouldn't you listen?

She tried to ignore his words as they floated through her mind, '_You're not Hya anymore, not _my _Hya. Now you're Hya_cinth_. The name fits, you know. The one you called repulsive?'_

_No_, she thought, _I will not succumb to this._

Today was her last day of eighth grade. She'd gone into it with such high hopes. She thought it would be the perfect end to a great year, not the day she got her heart broken. She'd finally mustered up the courage to tell her best friend, Jared, how she felt about him, and was all set to do it, too. Then, then he had to ruin everything. He'd pulled her aside, and she thought he was going to tell her he liked her, too, but rather, he broke her heart, and tainted her last memories of her best friend.

'_I'm moving to New Rome,' he had said, blue eyes glinting._

_I'd been so happy when he pulled me aside, _Hyacinth remembered, she remembered what all too clearly the chaos that ensued, '_Yes, I will go out with- What?'_

Hya clamped her eyes shut, as if to banish the memory of the day's events. She wasn't proud of how she reacted, nor how the words he said, however hurtful, rung with a truth that rocked her very core. When she'd gotten home from school today she'd run past her parents and locked herself in her room, moping ever since.

Opening her eyes, she realized that trying to ignore the memory wouldn't keep it at bay. She remembered ranting, yelling at her best friend all the reasons he couldn't move across the country. The hurt and fury in his blue eyes made her immediately feel like a horrible person, and she still wished she could take back what she said. Then, he rebuttled, and it'd rocked her to her core.

'_Oh, I'm sorry I'm half Roman, I didn't know they were so horrible! You _can't _tell me what to do, Hya! Not like you do everyone else! You used to be so nice, if a little sad, what happened? You wonder why nobody ever wants to be your friend anymore, well I'll tell you why, Hya!'_

'_No, Jared, I'm sorry!' _she'd said, terrified of his blazing fury, '_I didn't mean it! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry-'_

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She choked out, not realizing she'd started saying it. She let out a sob as she felt the tears burn their way down her cheeks. She was so sorry, Jared. Why couldn't he see that? Hya wanted to be mad at him, to blame it all on him, but like his words before, his next few words rang with truth. Trying to banish the treacherous voice that kept telling her he was right from her head, she slammed her fist into her pillow. It calmed her, somehow, so she did it again. And again.

She kept slamming her hand into the innocent pillow, over and over again in time with the rhythm of the words playing through her head, '_You're an attention seeking pig! I don't know how I never saw it before. You hate your family, for gods know why, so if anyone ever reminds you of them you take out your fury by saying every mean thing you can think of to them! You think you're the coolest, but you're not! You're just a bully! I thought if I stuck with you you'd realize how wrong your behavior is, but no! You've been trying to drag me into it! You are nothing but a heartless, cruel, self-centered, attention seeking bully, and you know what? Someday, I hope it comes back and bites you in the donkey!'_

Hya brought her hand back for another swing at the pillow, but she couldn't find it in herself to hit it. She flopped on her bed. _Everything is true, _she thought forlornly, _I'm a horrible person, I don't deserve to live. I bet he was only ever my friend out of pity. Everyone hates me, even my own family. I'm worth nothing._

Hya cried heavily into her pillow. _Never become involved with boys, _she thought miserably, _nothing good can come of it._

Her friends rejection stung so much. He was the person that had known her best. Every flaw and every strength she had, he probably knew, and he decided she wasn't worth it. _Never again, _she decided, _never again will I let someone get close enough to me that they'll be able to hurt me like he has._

"Ten minutes 'til dinner!" she heard her mother call from downstairs.

Hya slowed her tears and cleaned her face. She was standing in her bathroom, well, she thought of it as hers, she actually shared it with her two sisters. She stared at her reflection in the mirror. At her core, she was still the same average looking girl with almond shaped brown eyes, long brown hair and skin that was a mix between Latina and Mediterranean. But she looked like a mess. Her eyes were bloodshot, her face blotchy and red. There was still a little snot running from her nose, and she looked like someone just ran over her puppy,

She eyed the makeup on the counter. She'd received it as a gift for Christmas, but she'd never felt the urge to use it until now. The brown eyed girl played with the makeup for a few minutes.

"Dinner!" She hear her mother call.

"Alright, be down in a minute!" she replied, applying the finishing touches to her makeup. With a sad smile, Hya hid under the makeup, and after carefully putting the makeup away, Hyacinth turned off the light and made her way down to dinner.


	30. Salt

**Hey guys, I don't actually have much to say here. Uh, lets see... Oh yeah. I hope you guys understand Hya a little more after that last chapter. And, to SPQRandCHB Forever, I, unfortunately, can't promise she won't cry anymore, as I have a plan for her. Sorry. About this chapter, I didn't explicitly tell you at the end, but if the reasoning isn't clear enough, then review or message me and I'll make it clearer. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Sunday, May 14th, 14 years after defeating Gaea_

"Alright, kids," he said, looking serious for once, "I forgot it was Mother's Day, and we need to do something for your mother before she kills me."

Two faces nodded at him, and he continued, glancing over his shoulder to make sure his wife didn't overhear, "Here's the plan. We're going to cook dinner for her."

What they didn't hear was his mutter of, "Hopefully."

Emmy looked skeptical at the whole idea, but Jacob looked positively thrilled. Percy smiled and hustled his children into the kitchen. He pulled out two aprons decorated with sea creatures and tied them onto his children. Annabeth kept them around in case Emmy and Jacob ever felt like helping for once. She, wisely, didn't trust him in the kitchen.

Pulling down a book with clippings from magazines and such wedged between it's pages from the cookbook shelf, he commented leafing slowly through the pages, "What do we want to make? Lasagna? Barbecue? One of the five-gazillion chicken recipes?"

"Chicken! Chicken!" Jacob chanted, tugging on his father's shorts. Percy smiled, his son was always so easy to please. The nine-year-old on the other hand…

"Can we make something with olives?" she asked, causing Jacob to nod a little.

"No," he said. Honestly, they were disgusting. Though that might be from his dad's rivalry with Athena, he still was annoyed both of his children were on his wife's side.

Jacob frowned, "But Dad-"

"No olives," Percy said strictly. He wasn't strict most of the time, but there were a few things he couldn't allow.

"Fine," his blonde haired daughter said with a sigh, though she didn't seem that down about it, "Then can we have that chicken stuffed with cheese?"

"Sounds good to me," Percy said with a smile, "Jacob?"

"Yes! Yes!" Jacob cried enthusiastically.

"Alright, let's get to work, then," Percy said, pulling out the loose recipe. He stared at it for awhile, trying to work out what it said. As he expected, the letters and words swam around on the page, as typical for whenever he wanted to read something besides Ancient Greek. Eventually, since he wasn't making good progress, he called Emmy over.

She also had to stare at it for awhile before working it out, but she was better at translating her dyslexia than her father and brother, likely because of how much she took after her mother and godly grandmother, "Okay, so first we need…"

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Finally, after a few incidents, some extensive ceiling cleansing, a mix up between chicken and turkey, and an emergency repair call that baffled Leo Valdez, Jacob, Emmy and their dad had successfully cooked dinner.

"Finally," Percy commented, running a hand through his hair.

He turned to face his daughter's green gaze, "Emmy, can you set the table?"

She nodded and he sighed, then turned his attention to his son, not really paying attention to him at first, "Jacob, can you watch the food while I- Hey! Jacob, No!"

Percy rushed over to his son, who was looking at him wide-eyed and confused. The seven year old looked exactly like some of the pictures Percy's mother had shown him of himself.

"No," he said, gently taking the salt shaker out of his hand, "We just spent five hours putting this meal together. Don't do anything to the food."

He inspected the salt shaker, and saw that his son dumped most of the salt all over the food. Percy used his finger to taste it, and surprisingly, it didn't taste bad. It tasted perfectly fine.

Sighing in relief, Percy turned to look at Jacob, "Watch the food. Don't touch it, don't let anything happen to it."

With that, he ran across the house to get whatever it was he wanted to bring to the table. Finally ready, they sat Annabeth down at the table.

"In honors of Mother's Day," Percy said, "We decided to cook dinner for you. We have cheese-stuffed chicken, angel hair pasta and broccoli. We also decided to let you watch your favorite documentary tonight on the good TV."

At this point, Percy pulled a DVD case labeled _Architecture In-Depth: Ancient Techniques_, and Emmy coughed loudly, causing Percy to roll his eyes, "Alright, fine, I made the decision without consulting them, but still."

His wife laughed at him as he presented the food in a flourishing manner. They all sat down at the table, which was covered in an under the sea themed table cloth. Even the dishes matched the theme, as Emmy, deciding it was a special occasion, pulled out the sea creatures themed dishes.

"You know," Annabeth commented, gray eyes sparkling, "For forgetting about Mother's Day, you did a pretty good job at pulling this together last minute."

Percy blushed, "How, uh, how did you find out?"

"Seaweed Brain," she said with a sigh and an eye-roll, "You're not as stealthy as you think you are."

He blushed again, and his children giggled at him causing him to stick his tongue out at the childishly, "Alright, you caught me."

"You never could keep anything secret from me," Annabeth commented with a laugh, dishing out the food.

"Oh, be careful," warned Percy, "Jacob went a little crazy with the salt while my back was turned. I thought it tasted fine, but I thought that I'd warn you."

The gray-eyed blonde rolled her eyes for what was likely the fiftieth time that night, "I'm sure it's fine, Percy."

"Alright," he said with shrug before digging in.

Annabeth had just taken her first bite of her meal when she started coughing, she even made a gagging noise at one point. After a moment, she forced the food down while Percy, Emmy and Jacob kept glancing at her in concern. She looked at her family with a disgruntled expression, "How can you eat that much salt?"

They all looked at her in confusion, and Percy spoke up, "What do you mean? It tastes perfectly fine."

"Seaweed Brain," she said with a sigh when it clicked. Of course Poseidon's descendants would be completely oblivious to the excessive salt.


	31. Puppy Dog Eyes

**Greetoids, peeps, welcome to this chapter! Shout out to _ell13_ for suggesting this one-shot, I love it when you guys submit ideas. Also, I recently noticed we reached 50 followers on this story, so thank you guys so much for that, when I started this I didn't even think I'd get ten. I don't really have anything else to add here, so I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_September 6th, 24 years after defeating Gaea_

"Would you cut it out?" Aiden said, giving Jacob a 'You've got problems, dude,' look, "I know you like her, dude, but the way you're always staring at her is kind of creepy. She's my sister."

Jacob groaned. The other legacy had found out about his crush on Belle only a few weeks ago, but whenever it was just the two of them, he never let him forget it. The two friends were walking to school together, without Rose. She was out sick again. It wasn't even anything major, but she could never go school until she stopped sneezing because every time she sneezed, fire came out her nose. Jacob even had it on video.

Completely ignoring his friend, the black haired boy continued staring. He'd long ago given up on trying to hold a grudge on her, and he couldn't tear his eyes away from his best friend's twin. Jacob took in her appearance, seemingly mesmerized by her.

Her hair, which often hung in a long, glossy sheet and was the color of chocolate, was done in a meticulous fishtail braid, which was one of her favorite ways to wear it. A few locks had fallen out, and were, Jacob thought, perfectly framing her face. A few dark strands of hair were dangling in front of her eyes. While it might have annoyed some people, Jacob thought it made her even more gorgeous, in a natural sort of way.

Belle's eyes, which were this startling, electric blue color like her father's, were on of his many favorite things about her. They were always so lively and full of energy. Sometimes, she would try to hide something, but her eyes were so… Beautiful, and they fit her so perfectly that Jacob could always tell how she was feeling. And the way they were framed perfectly by her long, dark lashes…

As far as Jacob was concerned, her face was perfect. She had high cheekbones, and a defined jawline. Her nose had a regal arch, and her eyes were large and bright. Her lips were full, and they always seemed to have a slight quirk at the edges, like she was holding in a laugh. Features you'd only really notice if you spent a lot of time staring at them. And when she smiled, well, Jacob loved it, because it lit up her whole face. It made her look like she had not a care in the world, as if as long as she kept smiling, nothing would go wrong. The very sight of it was enough to make Jacob's stomach flip.

And her skin, it was only a few shades lighter than her mother's, and it was a warm color, as if she had a perpetual tan. Her hands weren't perfectly manicured, like Jacob had seen some other girls keep them. Rather, the nails were often chipped and dirty, which represented to Jacob that she wasn't incapable of doing anything for herself, and he loved watching her get fired up when someone tried to treat her like a princess. Her legs were long, and he could see the sleek muscles under the skin of her limbs.

Normally, Jacob didn't really care about how a girl dressed, but Belle was different. She didn't dress for attention, and she avoided the revealing clothes her friends sometimes (always) wore. Often, when she wasn't in school, he saw her training with her Gladius with her brother, dressed in a loose t-shirt and oversized denim shorts. That was always one of the instances where he thought she looked her prettiest, glaring at her brother, sweat dripping off of her brow, her golden gladius glinting in her hands.

Jacob dimly realized he'd likely been staring at her for an uncomfortable amount of time, but it didn't bother him. She was just so pretty.

"Hey! Earth to Jacob, are you there? If you don't respond then I'm going to post on Instagreek that you still sleep with a plushie. Here it goes… Almost done… And it's up!" Aiden frowned, realizing her still wasn't getting through, "Alright fine, I didn't actually post anything. Hey, hey Dude, can you stop that? No? I hope you don't mind if I take your sword for some practice. And I'm taking your advanced gaming equipment."

Still not getting a reaction, Aiden frowned, before reaching over and slapping his friend across the face. Not hard enough to hurt him, but enough to get his attention.

The raven haired boy jumped to alertness, looking all around before his eyes locked on his target, "Dude! What was that for?"

"'Cause, Pellet Brain, you were doing that thing where you zone out and stare at my sister again," Aiden complained.

Flushing bright red, Jacob objected, "I- I was not!"

"Sure," his friend said with an eye-roll, "Sure you weren't."

"Oh, like you don't do the same thing with Rose," Jacob countered.

The blonde glared at him, "That's different."

"Sure," the green-eyed boy said, mimicking his friend, "Sure it is."

Aiden pouted, but replied, "Whatever, Salt Sucker, just cut it with the puppy dog eyes, you're gonna give me nightmares."

"It's not that bad, Static Face," Jacob said confidently, then ruined the effect by adding, "Right?"

The legacy of Jupiter rolled his eyes, and his friend pouted, crossing his arms stubbornly, before perking up at the sight of said legacy's twin, "Dude, when did your sister get so gorgeous?"

Aiden threw his hands in the air, kaleidoscope eyes flashing, "Oh my gods! You _just_ saw her YESTERDAY!"

"So? That still doesn't answer my question."

With a facepalm, the tan blonde shouted to no one in particular, "That's it, I give up!"


	32. Parents

**Hey everyone, here's today's update. This was _also_ suggested by ell13, like the last chapter. Thanks to her for that. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_June 20th, 25 years after defeating Gaea_

When you're eighteen and fresh out of high school, it's often considered one of the best times in your life. You're finally free of being completely controlled by your parents and the public school program, and you can pretty much do what you want with minimal resistance. Some teens would be out enjoying themselves, partying to their hearts' content and enjoying their newfound freedom. Other teens this age might going to the movies, or hanging with their friends on the beach. Something they're also commonly found doing is sitting on the couch doing nothing. Which is pretty much what Aiden and Rose were doing.

"So…" The blonde haired legacy said awkwardly, "Any ideas on what to do?"

"Nope," Rose, his girlfriend since graduation, said with a shrug, "You?"

"Empty," he said passively.

They sat in silence for awhile, neither person quite sure what to do. That was, of course, until their parents walked into the house, and the couple decided that running far, far away sounded like a good idea.

"-and their kiss as they threw their caps in the air? Magic!" Aiden's mother said, causing him to slouch lower on the couch.

Next it was Rose's turn for embarrassment when her father replied in his typical sassy fashion, "Beauty Queen, your Aphrodite is showing."

"Cut it out, Repair Boy!" The so called 'Beauty Queen' said, slapping him playfully as they walked into the living room where the two teens were trying to turn themselves invisible. The Cherokee woman's eyes narrowed when she caught sight of them, and the others followed her gaze.

"Ah, and here they are! You know, my siblings have named them Roden," she said, making no move to leave.

"Mmm," Calypso said, catching on.

"You know," Piper said idly, a sparkle in her polychromatic eyes, "My siblings have also been betting on when they'll get engaged, when they get married, the works."

The teens looked as though they were having a competition as to who could best rival a tomato.

The two adults who had not yet realized that their wives were playing with their children, were lost in their own worlds. After a moment, they exchanged knowing looks, and when no one spoke, the blonde man married to Piper chose to enlighten the onlookers, "Do you know what this means, bro?"

Well, sort of, anyway. His teen son groaned at his father's use of the slang term.

"You bet I do," The Latino man who'd referred to Piper as Beauty Queen said with a smirk.

The men were silent for a moment, until it looked like they were unable to contain their smiles, at which point they burst into equally stupid grins, exclaiming, "We're gonna be grandpas together!"

Their wives looked torn, they seemed thrilled at the thought, but looked as though they wanted to facepalm at their husbands' childish antics. Mostly, though, they looked amused as their husbands gave each other painful-looking but good-natured slaps on the back.

The teenage couple being subjected to their parents attention looked as though they'd be having more fun in the Fields of Punishment, and they shouted in embarrassment, "DAD!"

"You know," Jason said, blue eyes glinting pridefully, "I bet I'll be the favorite grandfather."

Leo snorted in response, "No way, because Abuelo Valdez is going to be the best grandparent the world has EVER SEEN!"

The women chuckled at the argument of their husbands. Piper looked sternly, though not unkindly, at the teenage couple embarrassed beyond words on the couch, "Not until after you're married, though."

The couple's faces got even redder, defying all logic, and her blonde haired son started stumbling awkwardly over his words, "W- we hadn't even thought about that!"

Meanwhile, the hyperactive mechanic hadn't noticed the conversation his future son-in-law was having with his mother, and was busy talking animatedly with his wife and friend, "I bet they'll have two children, a boy and a girl, and I'll make them name him Leo II Fuego Valdez-Grace!"

His wife, who had been watching with an amused, though slightly disapproving expression, slapped him playfully, "Leo!"

"What?" he said, perfectly aware of why she was slapping him.

"You can't make our daughter name her eventual children after you!" The cinnamon haired woman said while Jason looked on in amusement.

Leo snickered, "Like how you can't name every child you have after a flower?"

His wife's cheeks flushed, and she glared at him, "That's different."

"Sure. Sure it is."

Calypso huffed at her endearingly annoying husband. It was then the trio finally took note of Piper's interactions with the teens.

"-and never, ever, offer him grape flavored lollipops, okay Rose? Aiden gets way too excited about them." She was saying, eliciting a sound of protest from her teenaged son, "Oh, shush, you, you know it's true."

Jason stepped in, looking at his son pityingly, "Uh, Pipes? I think you've embarrassed him enough. I didn't know someone could have that much blood in their face."

The daughter of Aphrodite stepped back and surveyed her son, who was meekly nodding his agreement with his father, and after studying him for a moment stated decisively, "Yeah, I guess you're right Sparky."

He flushed slightly at the nickname, but herded the other adults out of the room. The traumatized couple sat in silence for awhile.

When the embarrassment had finally worn off enough for him to communicate in more than annoying, pitiful squeaks, Aiden commented to his girlfriend with a nervous, forced half-smile, "Next time neither of us can come up with something to do, I vote not sitting on the couch doing nothing."

Rose continued staring absently at the wall in front of them with a haunted look, "Agreed."


	33. Weird is Good

**So glad I stocked up on chapters over the summer, I'd kind of forgotten how annoying homework is. Um, I don't think this was suggested, but let me know if I'm wrong. This is another one about Ember, because I figured it's been long enough since you all saw her. I don't know that Ava will really ever show up again, but I kind of wanted an outside-ish view of Ember. If you guys want other outside-ish views, let me know, but otherwise I won't do them much. Let' see... Oh, I wanted to point out again, you can suggest things, even if it's just saying you want to see a certain character next. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and stay awesome everyone!**

**-ROC6**

People never think of little kids as being cruel, but often, that's when people are cruelest of all. They don't understand what they're doing to each other with their harsh words and judgmental faces. Sometimes they don't even consider that they might be hurting someone else's feelings. Sure, they never say anything as bad or as harsh as when they get older, but when you're young it's such an emotionally unstable time in your life that even the smallest of things can send you to tears.

A good example is when Ava Logan started attending Athenian Elementary. With her remarkably fair skin and long ice blonde hair, she didn't look much like most of the other kids who were tan from training and running around, even if they weren't old enough to use real weapons yet. Therefore, the other kids weren't really sure what to make of her at first.

At recess on her first day, she was cornered by a large, athletic boy who went by the name of Liam. He sneered when he saw how meek she looked in her new environment, eyes wide and shining.

"Wow, look how weak she is. I pity whoever _her_ godly parent is," he said with a snort.

His group of friends, which was only about three people, laughed at her with him. Ava tried to run, but Liam reached out and grabbed her arm, causing her to trip. The group laughed some more as she winced as she stood up again, having scraped her knees.

"What a baby! The girl in Liam's group of followers piped up, "She can't even handle a few scratches!"

A third person chose to step in, "Yeah, and look at how weird she is, does skin even _come _that pale?"

They all laughed, even though it wasn't that funny. You may be thinking, where are the teachers on recess duty? Ava had been sitting at the far edge of the playground being that she didn't know anyone there, and that was where the only open bench she saw was. More likely than not, they thought Liam and his friends were trying to befriend her.

Ava had never had this problem before, at her old school she hadn't ever had anyone approach her simply to be mean. She'd had a group of friends, and they'd never really noticed anyone else. Of course, she realized as the ridiculing went on, a lot of things had changed since then. The most obvious of which had landed her here to be teased by her new classmates.

A tear slipped down Ava's face as the painfully recent memories resurfaced, and the group of schoolchildren pestering her were fueled on by it.

Another girl approached the group of second graders, and Ava feared she was going to join the others. Her hair was a color like the spice her dad likes-_liked_-to use. What was it called? Cinnamon. Though it did have darker streaks, and she somehow knew they were called highlights.

Much to Ava's surprise, the girl looked angry as she ran over.

"Hey!" she called, "What are you doing to the new girl!"

Liam sneered at the new player in the game, "Hey Coal. Come to get your treatment?"

She frowned, "Go away."

"Nuh uh!" The smallest boy said, "You can't make us!"

'Coal' turned and looked over her shoulder, before she turned back with a crazy smile, "Yes I can."

They looked confused, and Liam asked, "You can?"

She smirked, and started to hum, softly at first and then louder. Even though they looked completely and utterly confused, Liam and his friends turned tail and ran as if a monster was chasing them.

The girl walked over until she was standing in front of Ava's bench, "Hey, I'm Ember. Sorry, but I don't remember your name."

"Ava."

Ember gave a friendly smile, "Well Ava, don't mind them. They're boogers. All of them."

The new girl looked astonished at her strong language, and Ember sighed, "They do it to me, too."

Ava formed her mouth into an 'oh!' shape, and Ember shook her head, "You don't talk much, do you?"

She closed her mouth, unsure what to say to that while Ember babbled on, "I'll have to fix that. Do you say anything besides your name?"

Frowning, Ava interrupted her, "Of course I do, what kind of question is that?"

Ember fist pumped, "You do talk!"

Ava nodded and Ember sighed, "And it's gone again."

Ember stopped her chattering and examined the girl. She had a good idea who her mother was if her eyes were anything to go by. They were like the Rose's friend Aiden, who is a legacy of Aphrodite. Ava's eyes weren't kaleidoscope like his, rather they shifted between shades of blue. She shuffled her feet awkwardly when she realized how long they'd been staring at each other.

"Your pale skin is weird," Ember said, causing Ava's eyes to widen. Ember cracked a smile, "But remember, weird is good."

Ava smiled back.


	34. Pressure

**So... Hi everyone... I know you're probably mad at me for missing my last update day even though I still have some (though not as many as I'd like) emergency chapters stocked up, but I have a good excuse: I broke my arm on Saturday. See? A good excuse, and it's true, too. Just PM ell13, she's seen the cast. (Don't actually PM her for that, she may not like it.) Anyway, here's another update, and to make up for the wait you get... An extra long chapter! It's Emmy, and I happen to like it, and... More Ace backstory! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and stay awesome!**

**-ROC6**

_May 3rd, 19 years after defeating Gaea_

"Alright, corny as it sounds, I'm sure, we're going to be holding a competition to help us review for the chapter eight test tomorrow," Mrs. Hark said to her geometry class of legacies and demigods, "The four students who answer the most questions correctly in fifteen minutes will move onto the next round where each student will be given the same question, and the person who gets the most of those questions correct wins the prize. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves while I pass out the packets. _Don't _flip them over until I tell you to."

Emmy leaned back in her chair, twirling some of her hair around her finger. She glanced longingly at her book, she hated when teachers did little competitions like this in her class. Already, she could hear the whispers.

"Aw, come on! Emmy's mother is _the_ Annabeth Chase! It's not fair we have to go against her!" A boy two seats behind her whispered loudly to his friend.

To her dismay, the other boy answered, "She shouldn't be so smug over there. She only wins because her mother is Annabeth Chase. I bet if she was someone else's daughter she'd be an idiot or something."

The blonde haired girl shrunk a little lower in her seat, now doodling on her arm with a pen. She tried to ignore the whispered conversations around her.

"This sucks," a girl three seats to her right was saying, "Everybody knows Emmy will win. Mrs. Hark should just skip the competition and go straight to giving Emmy the prize."

Fidgeting uncomfortably, she heard another conversation across the classroom mention her name, "-Emmy is such a jerk. Do you see the way she squints at her papers like she has dyslexia, too? Or the way she has to ask the teachers for help sometimes on her essays? Everyone knows she's faking, she should just give up the act."

Right then, Emmy wanted to melt and go straight to the underworld. She blinked furiously, feeling a sheen of water form over her green eyes.

Thankfully, Mrs. Hark chose that moment to interrupt, "Alright class, begin."

Yes, Emmy hated class competitions.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Emmy was walking towards the arena when she heard some of the Apollo kids on the basketball court talking amongst themselves. Her ears perked up at the word 'tournament'.

"Hey guys," she said, walking up to the group of blue eyed campers, "What's this about a tournament?"

One of the boys looked at her, saying enthusiastically, "Mr. D and Chiron announced that the annual May 'Madness' Tournament will be this Friday. Same rules as last year, they said to register at the Big House."

Emmy smiled at him, "Thanks, Andy."

He smiled in return, "Good luck, Emmy!"

She chose to ignore the titterings of 'Not that she needs it,' and 'Aw, she's entering? Then it's not worth it,' coming from behind her as she walked to the Big House. She loved the tournament. She'd watched campers partaking in it every year (there was a separate one for Veteran demigods) growing up, and once she reached the age limit of thirteen last year, she'd entered. Everyone underestimated her, so she stole the strategy of a wolf in a book she read and jumped in disarming them the instant time began. Since no one expected her to, she actually won, though granted there were fewer year-rounders last year. This year she had a feeling it wouldn't be so easy.

Emmy didn't mind, she wanted a challenge.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

The crowd around the arena was rowdy. It had been a long day, with the elimination battles ranging from boringly short to tediously long. The final two competitors were standing in the arena, prepping for the final round of the contest, which was scheduled to begin in three minutes. Demigods and legacies were crowding as close as the could to the competition, eager to see who would win it this year.

The blonde haired girl redid her ponytail, as many locks had fallen into her face throughout the day. She grabbed a water bottle from the cooler, swigging roughly half of it and dumping the rest on her head. Immediately, she felt strength surge through her as if she just downed a ton of coffee or gatorade. She knew it would be gone before the match started, half a bottle would last until the countdown at the most.

The green eyed girl was proud to have made it to the final battle. She'd faced powerful opposition in some of the earlier matches, but she'd beat them. And now, having worked her hardest to get there, she was getting ready to fight in the championships. It felt good to know she'd earned her way there.

The Apollo counselor, a teenager named Kim, stepped onto her podium, letting out an earsplitting whistle. The voices in the crowd fell from yelling over each other to an ocean of whispers.

"Alright," Kim called, a slight lilt in her voice, almost as if singing the words, so she could project her voice as loud as a megaphone, "Here we are at the May Madness Tournament with one minute until the championship match starts, would the competitors please take their positions!"

Emmy's opponent, an unusually aggressive son of Ares, took his stance with a cocky grin. He was bigger than Emmy, being around sixteen, and he had more years of experience. She took a swig of Gatorade and straightened her ponytail. The green eyed girl drew her knife, one her parents had ordered to be made for her when she was an infant, and took up her stance across from the boy with a frown.

The audience was no longer yelling over each other, rather, it was a rolling sea of whispers. She tried to ignore them, but she couldn't.

"Even if she wins, everyone knows it's because her dad is Percy Jackson and her mom's Annabeth Chase," she recognized as the voice of one of her opponent's half-brothers.

Against her will, her hearing next zoned in on a daughter of Aphrodite, "You know, anyone else notice how she always get preferential treatment because her parents are Chiron's favorite students? She's gonna get creamed because she only had to fight easy matches."

Next she heard on Athena camper whispering to his half-siblings, the group of demigods she often trained with, "Most likely, if her parents weren't expert swordsman, she'd be just like the rest of us, skill wise."

Kim yelled out, "Fifteen seconds!"

"She's not even nice," a daughter of Demeter was saying, "She acts like she's too good for us, and she has both her parents. Wonder who she gets it from? They're both nice. Just because her parents are heroes doesn't mean she's all that."

Emmy took a step back, blinking furiously, and sheathed her knife. She turned to Kim, taking another step away, "Sorry, but I need a minute."

She turned and ran. Kim looked lost, glancing between Chiron and Emmy, and Blake, her opponent, threw his hands in the air as if to say _What is this!_

Emmy ran across camp, all the way to the lake. She ran into the water, and swam to a cove her father had brought her to for as long as she could remember. It helped to see the familiar walls carved by the currents. There was a variety of aquatic plant life growing on the bottom of the cove, and colorful fish often swam in and out. She created a bubble of air for herself as she sat and cried.

A voice pulled her out of her thoughts, and she quickly composed herself, removing the snot and tears from her face with a strong swipe of water so that the only sign of her self-pity fest was the slight redness on her face.

"You made me promise to IM you if something were to change so-" Ace looked into the Iris Message for the first time, and he looked even more worried, "Emily, what's wrong?"

She waved with her hand, "That's not important, Ace, what were you going to say?"

He frowned, pursing his lips slightly, but Emmy wouldn't be swayed. His mom was slowly dying of leukemia, her petty problems were unimportant in comparison. Ace didn't look happy about it, but he dropped the topic.

"Alright, fine," he said with a look telling her this wasn't over, "Remember how I told you the doctors thought she'd last until Christmas? Well they just took another scan, and the cancer's growing faster than they thought. She'll be lucky if she makes it to see me enter high school."

Emmy frowned, furrowing her brow, "And there's nothing they can do?"

"Nope," he said, then looked at her sternly, "So what is this problem?"  
The green eyed girl didn't meet his gaze, "It's stupid."

"Emily," he said softly, completely changing tone as he realized just how upset she was, "Nothing that makes you cry is stupid."

This was one of the things she liked about him. His world was falling apart and his mom was dying, yet he still made her feel like she was the most important thing in the world. He should be upset, or crying, or asking her for comfort, and here he was trying to comfort _her_. She loved that about him. Er, not loved, liked. Yeah, liked.

"Yes it is!" she said like she was about to cry again, then she got control of herself, looking mortified, "It is Ace, trust me."

"Emily, look at me," she brought her eyes painstakingly up to meet his, "Now what's wrong?"

She looked hesitantly into his eyes, one was a rich blue with a soft brown ring around it, the other a warm hazel, "You sure?"

"Of course," he said, sitting down.

"It's, just, well…" she trailed off, but continued at Ace's silent encouragement, "I'm such a failure. By my age, both my parents had killed countless monsters, led a quest, and been on at least three quests! I haven't done anything! I do well in school, I practice in the arena all the time, but I haven't done anything important! And everyone's looking at me, expecting me to be as great as my parents, but I'm not!"

She was starting to cry again, but she couldn't stop it now, "And everything I do, people just say oh, it's because of her parents. And they're right! I've never accomplished anything on my own. I'm smart because my _mom_ tutored me, I'm good with my knife because my _parents _ taught me! Nothing I've done I've earned. And everyone thinks I'm so stuck up because of who my parents are, I'm not! They think I fake my dyslexia, my nearsightedness, they think that I'm mean, or rude, but I'm not. Am I? And I try to be nice, but I never know if I offend anyone, because everyone seems to act so distant now, and maybe I am mean and I just don't realize it. I'm not my parents, I'm not perfect! And everyone's always judging me behind my back! They want me to be just like my parents, but I'm not! I feel so pressured to be just like my parents, but I'm not! And I'll never be good enough! I'm a horrible daughter, a failure, and everyone knows it, and I just don't know what to do and…"

Her voice croaked, and she was crying again. Ace was a great listener, not looking pitying or anything, just trying to provide support. She shouldn't have burdened him. He's got his own problems, he doesn't need to hear hers. Why did she tell him? She didn't want to, but her seemed so sincere, though maybe he was only her friend because of her parents…

_No, he's my _friend_,_ she thought. It provided a little comfort. Ace waited for her to stop crying. When her tears slowed down again, he spoke, "Emily, that's not true. It may seem like it at times, because there are so many horrible people in this world that want nothing more than to tear you down, but you're an amazing person. You get good grades from _your_ work, not your parents work. Your skill with your knife is _your _skill, from your practice and experience. You're not perfect, but nobody is. You're the perfect daughter, the best child a parent could want. Your parents don't expect you to, nor do they want you to, be exactly like them. And anyone who does sucks. You're beautiful, Emily. Just remember, you're perfect the way you are."

She felt a little better, though not much, "You think so?"

"Yes, and… I didn't mean to say some of that out loud," he said with a blush, causing her to laugh a little, then the mood turned serious, "Just, if it ever builds up like that again, promise you'll come to me, Emily?"

She gave him a sad smile, "Alright, I promise."

There was yelling in the background of the IM, and Ace winced, "Sorry, gotta go."

"It's fine," she said drearily, "Bye Ace."

"Bye Emily."

She got up, drawing her knife and the letting the water embrace her. She swam to the surface, ready to fight in the tournament, and earn it herself. It was _her _accomplishment from her own talent, not anyone else's, and she was proud of how far she'd come. (And later, she'd be proud that she won it, after a long, hard battle.)


	35. Doors

***Walks up in full suit of armor* You may now release your various projectiles upon me! Sorry, really, for the incredibly long update wait, but I was having one of those crises where I hated everything I wrote, then I got overly wrapped up in some characters I was designing for school, and I was really busy with homework, and basically I have no real excuse. Sorry. I really hope this insight into Ember was worth the wait, and if not, sorry. As far as updates go I'll aim for once a week, and we'll see. If it goes well, I'll go back to every four days, okay? Don't kill me. Thank you for being patient, and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Stay awesome, everyone.**

**-ROC6**

_Thursday, September 27th, 19 years after defeating Gaea_

Ember didn't care what anyone else said about her. It was her life, and she would live it how she wanted. The third-grader was in gym class at the moment, and the boys were heckling her for trying. They were fitness testing, and she was the last girl running the pacer test, though there were still a couple guys left.

"Hey Val-don't! You're a _girl_! You gonna stop being weird and sit out already?" One said to her as the ran.

"Hey Stupven," she said back confidently, sweeping her braid over her shoulders, "You're a _boy. _You should act like one rather than a donkey."

They continued running laps, and much to his chagrin, she lasted ten laps longer than he did.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Monday, October 18th, 22 years after defeating Gaea_

The cinnamon haired girl was stopping at her locker when a group of girls walked past. She didn't normally like to eavesdrop, but the sixth-grader had heard her name mentioned, so of course her ears perked up.

"What is she wearing?" One said, snickering with her friends. Ember recognized her as Maddy.

Macy spoke up next, "A white t-shirt and grass stained jeans? Is she _trying _to look like an idiot?"

Then they were out of earshot again. But it didn't matter, she still knew what they said. The girls were talking about her. Again. She'd heard some of the rumors that had begun to spread. She didn't know who was starting them, but they hurt. She always had her friends around, though, so she'd never had to worry. It made her wonder, though. They were never this vicious in elementary school, what changed? What's different now?

She slammed her locker shut like she always does, and went to go meet her friends for lunch.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Friday, November 13th, 25 years after defeating Gaea_

Ava grabbed her arms and pulled her around the corner, pressing her against the wall and pinning her arms.

"Come on!" Ember yelled at her friend, "Let me at 'im!"

The blonde frowned, "Em, you can't go challenging everyone that teases you to a fight. You'll get expelled."

The other ninth-grader scowled, "They've been teasing me for years. Why can't I get back at them just _once_?"

"No," her blue-eyed friend said assertively, "Because once turns into twice, and it just goes on and on. Don't let them know that they get to you, it'll only encourage them."

"But Ava," Ember said childishly, dragging the word out, "I want to get back at them!"

"So go steal Rose's stuff or something and prank them, but don't you dare do anything head on. Wait 'til you cool off, okay?"

Ember grumbled some things in Greek, then finally agreed, and Ava released her arms.

"Better?" she asked.

"Better," Ember said, crossing her arms with a scowl.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Wednesday, September 12th, 26 years after defeating Gaea_

Lunch was almost over by the time Ava found her. She probably could've stayed hidden longer, but the bathroom was a fairly uncreative hiding spot. Her friend found her sitting on the floor leaning against the wall of the bathroom.

Ava didn't say anything, just sat down next to her fellow tenth-grader. The two girls sat in silence for awhile.

"Ava," Ember said, finally breaking the silence, "Why do they- Why do they do this to me?"

"I don't know," her friend answered honestly, "But we'll get through it. We always do."

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Tuesday, October 20th, 26 years after defeating Gaea_

Ember had been trying to work on an essay for school due at the end of the week, but the tenth-grader hadn't been able to bring herself to do it. Rather, she'd ended up staring blankly at the computer screen for the past hour. Tear tracks stained her cheeks, and her eyes were pink, though she wasn't even aware she was crying.

Their words echoed in her mind. _Ugly. Stupid. Fat. Dumb. Freak. Babyish. Wannabe._

And those were the milder ones. They called her other things, said she did other things, and every word they'd ever said about her was still knocking around her head, reminding her every time she felt good that she shouldn't, that people saw her this way.

She didn't know what she did wrong. She obeyed every rule, was nice to everyone when she met them, put up with their taunting for _years_. But she couldn't do it anymore. Ember knew she couldn't. Something had to change before things got any worse.

Ember turned her head to look at her bedroom door, contemplating. Doors were just that, doors. They could lead somewhere nice, or lead somewhere horrible. For awhile now she'd been curious what was on the other side. After all, every door lead somewhere. The question was where. She knew if she did this, things could get worse for her. But they could also get a heck of a lot better, which she knew there was no way in Hades was going to happen if she continued to lie down and roll over to everyone in her life. She stood up, fingers dancing across her leg.

Then, she steeled herself. She looked around her room, and grabbed a few personal items, and a couple day's worth of clothes. She walked downstairs, and once she was sure no one was paying attention to her, she shoved a bunch of instant breakfast bars, a couple of water bottles, and a box of crackers into her old backpack. She threw on her Hunger Games sweatshirt, and strapped her sword to her waist.

Ember walked to the front door, then looked back. This would change things, for better or for worse. She smiled, then stepped through the door.

She started to run, as far away from her childhood home as possible. Her worn sneakers beat into the sidewalk, then as the city ended, the packed dirt, and eventually the green grass of the countryside. It was dusk when Ember finally stopped for a break, and she'd switched to walking a while ago, but she didn't care. She felt great, better than she had in a long while. There was no one around to tell her how horrible she was and how she didn't deserve to live, it was just her.

It felt better than she could've imagined to be free, able to run or to fight or to do whatever. She knew she'd only have a few nights out here. With the magic of Camp Half-Blood, and her family's technology, Ember knew there was no way she'd have long. Everyone would be looking for her now, even her sister Hyacinth. Ember knew she cared, no matter how much she hid and pretended not to.

After downing an instant breakfast bar and some water, Ember lay down on the ground, using her backpack as a pillow. The light of the stars and the moon occasionally cut in and out with the clouds, and she loved it.

For the first time in a long time, Ember slept peacefully through the night, with no one haunting her dreams. She woke up rested in the morning, and set out again, determined to see where this door would lead her.


	36. Stars

**Ha! I got another update up! ...Sorry. Just happy I actually got this update up on time. Here's a one-shot about Belle and Jacob. You guys all seem to ship them most, so here you go. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Wednesday, October 21st, 26 years after defeating Gaea_

There was a vague, silvery glow cast over the city, now silent in the darkness. The two figures stood at the edge of the golden glow of the streetlight, having frozen when they saw each other approaching from the opposite direction. They stood studying each other, knowing who it was, but still trying to make out the other's facial features in the shadowy light.

"Belle," one figure said slowly, as though unsure of theirself.

"Jacob," she responded, equally unsure.

They stared at each other a moment, neither sure what to do from there. Then, Jacob seemed to muster up his courage.

"What are you doing out in the city at this hour?" He asked gruffly, though his eyes were soft, showing he cared.

"I could ask the same about you," she said, a hint of half-hearted sass coloring her tone.

He gave a small shrug, taking a step closer, then his eyes melted with concern, "Rose's sister, Ember, ran away. I was in the city visiting my parents, so I went to help them. Everyone agreed to call it a night, so here I am. Walking home. What about you?"

She sighed, "Nothing good."

He scanned her eyes, "Can you tell me?"

The Cherokee girl sighed and didn't meet his eyes, "When your friend calls you in the middle of the night talking hysterically… You can't say no."

"Lily," He said. They both knew that was the friend. The raven haired man scratched the back of his neck, "I thought you were away at college in New Rome."

"I was," she murmured, stepping closer so he could hear her, "Lily relapsed, they called me in to talk to her and help her with withdrawal again."

Jacob didn't say anything, just examined her expression with his green eyes. She stared back at him, "What about you?"

"Every other weekend I call Midnight and she gives me a lift back to New Athens so I can visit," he explained, causing Belle to smile half-heartedly. He'd always loved that pegasus.

The smile dwindled off her face after a few seconds, though. The two stood, examining each other. They'd never been close in high school, and the time away at college had only deepened the chasm. Belle examined his green eyes, black hair and chiseled features. He seemed to have grown more handsome since she last saw him, growing out his boyish features. She could still see the same boy she fell in love with, though, could still picture his goofy smile and awkward laugh. It was strange to see him again, and all those feelings for him she'd tried to bury came rushing back.

She shivered.

"Oh," Jacob said, swing his jacket off with a sheepish grin, "Use this."

He pulled her closer and wrapped it around her shoulders, then froze. Her eyes were mesmerizing. Bright blue framed perfectly by long, dark lashes. His heart fluttered. He had been trying so hard to ignore that part of him, the part that hadn't stopped loving her for two years now. He knew she didn't feel the same way. She'd always been forward with guys she'd liked, yet she always clammed up around him. Images of what could've been flashed through his head. She looked so beautiful in front of him right then.

Belle looked at the jacket draped over her shoulders, then looked at him, "I'll get it back to you tomorrow, alright?"

He murmured something incoherent, and she leaned closer to try to hear him, "What?"

Jacob was at a loss for words. She was _so close!_ He could just lean in a few inches and kiss her. He froze. Oh gods, he could kiss her. All he had to do was close the gap.

Belle looked at him sadly, and started to move away, and he froze. He had to do something, "No!"

The green-eyed man froze, as did the girl. He hadn't meant to say that.

"What?" She asked, brushing some hair out her face. Her hand accidentally brushed him, and butterflies danced over their skin where they touched. Their faces were inches away now, and they could feel each other's breath on their cheeks. Jacob blushed, and Belle laughed.

She was so mesmerizing… He didn't let himself think. Jacob leaned in and closed the gap, holding her against him. She went rigid in shock for a moment, then she melted into the kiss, pouring all the feelings she'd been trying to forget into him, and he did the same. It was amazing, everything they'd both wanted, and neither would rather have been anywhere else right then. It was a cold night, but they filled each other with warmth. After a few moments they each pulled away.

Jacob's mind was blank for a moment, she was everything he'd dreamed. Then it hit him what he just did, and he panicked.

"I'm- I'm sorry," he said, stumbling backwards away from her, "I shouldn't have done that. I'll- I'll just go now. Yeah. You can keep the jacket. See you around."

He turned and ran back the way he'd come, figuring he could take a different way home. He was mortified beyond belief, but he didn't regret it for a moment.

Belle stared after his shadow until his comforting figure faded into blackness. She hugged his blue windbreaker tighter around herself, before forcing herself to turn back the way she came. She wished she was in his arms again, his lips pressed against hers, but she wasn't, and there was nothing she could do to change that. She began to walk back to where she was staying, but it seemed to her that the stars were shining a little brighter than they were before.


	37. Junior Prom

**Thank you guys so much! This story made it to 100 reviews! That just blows my mind, considering when I started this I thought I'****d be lucky to get to thirty. I can't believe you guys, you're that awesome. In honor of the 100th review, which was by Princess Andromeda II, I have this one-shot! It's twice the length these chapters usually are, and it was suggested by Princess Andromeda II a while back, and I thought it was an awesome idea. Remember, guys, you can suggest ideas for anything you want to see the characters doing. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**Also, if anyone has any suggestions for Teddy, that would be great. I'm kind of stuck.**

**-ROC6**

_Saturday, May 31st, 24 years after defeating Gaea_

"It's the Junior Prom tonight," Aiden stated passively to his sister.

"So?" she said, still lounging on the couch in some old sweats.

Aiden sounded a little surprised, "You haven't missed a school dance since middle school and you haven't missed a party in just as long."

Belle shrugged and continued watching the Big Bang Theory marathon on TV, popping another handful of potato chips in her mouth.

"Wait," Aiden said incredulously, sitting up from where he was also lounging on the couch, "You really don't care?"

"Not one bit," she said, then held out her hand, "Want any Doritos?"

He shrugged and let it drop, the blonde haired twin preferred her this way, and reached out to take the chips, "Sure."

Then, "Hey, you got any Pepsi?"

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

"Hey Rose?" her mother said, "The Junior Prom is tonight."

"So?"

"Will Aiden be there?" she asked mischievously.

"Mom!" Rose groaned.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

The raven haired boy looked awkwardly at his parents. Even after a few months he wasn't used to his sister being away at college.

"So…" he said hesitantly, "I set the new pool record for the swim team."

"Way to go Jacob!" his father shouted excitedly, receiving a stern look from his mother.

She then turned her gaze to her son, "You didn't cheat, did you?"

"No, of course not!" he defended.

Her stern expression melted into a small smile, "Well, then great job, Jacob."

They stood in silence for a moment.

"Hey, I heard the Junior Prom is toni-" his father started saying.

"No!"

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Another episode was just starting when the doorbell rang, and Aiden looked at Belle questioningly, "I thought you said you weren't going?"

"I'm not," she grumbled with a scowl. The doorbell rang again, "Can you just get it?"

"Uh, sure," her twin said hesitantly, pulling himself to his feet.

Belle heard voices and after a moment her brother called back to her, "Hey Belle? I thought you said you weren't going to the Prom!"

"I'm not!" she called back, trying to hear what Sheldon was saying on TV.

"Well Locke says he's here to pick you up!" Aiden called back.

"Tell him to give me a few minutes," she said, pulling herself to her feet and staring mournfully at the TV.

"Alright," Aiden called, before proceeding to stand in an awkward silence with the other teenager. Belle knew she'd have to repay him for this later as she ran upstairs. She darted into her room, slamming the door behind her, and flipped a drachma into the Iris Message station.

"Oh Iris, Goddess of Rainbows, accept my offering. Show me Lily Tanaka in her room," she said, and to her pleasure, the goddess listened. A few moments later, the message appeared, and she could see Lily's meticulous, lavender swathed room.

"Oh, Belle!" Lily called when she noticed the message. To Belle's frustration, her friend was dressed in a short, mint green dress that left little to the imagination.

The Greco-Roman legacy scowled, "What is it with you and trying to set me up with idiots?"

"He's hot," Lily said as she picked up some eyeshadow, like that explained everything.

"He's an idiot."

The Asian-caucasian legacy pouted at her, "He's on the football team."

"He's an _idiot_."

"Intelligence isn't all that matters, you know," the legacy of Aphrodite said condescendingly while she dabbed blush delicately on her cheeks.

"Alright, fine!" Belle said, throwing her hands up in agitation, "He's also a- a _jerk_, and he goes through girls like tissue paper."

"So?" the mint-clad teenager said uncaringly, "I hear he'll be fun tonight."

The blue eyed legacy looked away, disgusted, "That's not gonna happen, and I'm not gonna go."

Looking unsurprised, the dark haired girl stated, "I swear on the Styx I won't try to set you up with another guy for a month and a half if you go to our Junior Prom."

The Cherokee girl hesitated, "Alright, fine."

"Fab," her friend said, slashing her hand through the message.

Belle sighed, she hated how her friend always sucked her into these things. She threw on a light blue dress that fell just below her knees, brushing her hair quickly and running downstairs.

"Hey Aiden? I'm going, and can you come too?" she asked her brother as the jock grabbed her arm and started pulling her away, "Promise?"

He groaned, "Fine."

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Rose was happily working on a project, and she would've been happy if her night had stayed that way. Alas, the universe had other plans, and an Iris Message appeared in the forge.  
"Rose?" Aiden asked, sounding panicked, "Rose, I need help!"

Her head shot up, and she stopped her fire-stream, pulling her welding goggles off of her eyes in one fluid movement, "What's happening, what's the emergency?"

He hesitated, but told her his problem anyway, stumbling over his words as he rushed them out, "Belle is forcing me to go to the dance but I don't wanna go alone and I want you to come with me so please just help and bring Jacob or something but just help me!"

The Latina chuckled, setting down the parts in her hands, "Not gonna happen."

"Come on, I'll, uh," he thought for a moment, then his face lit up, kaleidoscope eyes brightening, "I'll be your test subject for three projects of your choice."

Rose froze, considering his offer, then smirked in a way that made him regret what he'd just said, "Alright, I'll meet you there."

The fire-wielder slashed through the message, leaving the other legacy to stew in his fear.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

"What will it take to get you to come to the Junior Prom so I don't have to suffer through it while Aiden stares mournfully at the traitor?" Rose stated blandly at Jacob when the IM appeared.  
He thought for a moment, "Give me some chocolate chip cookies and finish that virtual reality Pokemon game and you're golden."

"Deal," she said with a grin, "Meet us out front of the school ASAP."

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

"Isn't this great?" Lily asked, winking one of her make-up caked eyes.  
"No," Belle stated bluntly, drumming her fingers against the light blue material of her dress.

Their dates had just gone to get some more 'punch', even though they were nowhere near the punch bowl.

"Aw, you're no fun," Lily said with a pout, "Loosen up a little."

Belle scowled, glancing over at her date, who was shamelessly flirting with another girl, "Not gonna happen."

"Come on, I'm sure Locke 'll be more than willing to help. I've heard some great things about him," Lily began to babble, but the Cherokee girl tuned her out.

She stared mournfully at her brother, who was laughing with his friends, wishing she could be over there with him, or back at home on her couch watching TV like she'd planned. She almost went over there, but something stopped her. Sure, she was Lily's friend, and therefore should keep her company, but Lily was the reason she was here in the first place, so she shouldn't have to be shackled to her by the ankle. If she was honest with herself, the reason she didn't want to join them was because she was pretty sure they still held a grudge against her for switching friend groups. Rose had made that quite clear. And… She wasn't sure she wanted to face the disapproval on h- their faces when she showed up.

So she stood stiffly next to Lily, nodding and forcing smiles at the appropriate times, pretending to drink the punch and ignoring Locke's raunchy attempts at flirting, all the while wishing she were anywhere else.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Jacob excused himself from the conversation, earning him a questioning look from Rose, and an annoyingly suggestive wink from Aiden. He walked over to Locke, where he was blatantly flirting with a girl that wasn't Belle. He briefly wondered where she'd gone when he didn't see her and Lily hovering by the dance floor, but he regretfully shrugged it off. He had bigger fish to fry. Which led his ADHD thoughts down an annoyingly random trail before he reminded himself of what he was supposed to be doing.

The brown-haired teen continued flirting, and Jacob's focus narrowed in.

"Hey!" the raven-haired boy said to Belle's date.

"Jackson," the boy said, turning slowly.

"Stop flirting with Kelsey," he said, his voice level.

Locke laughed at him, "How about no, Bruh?"

Jacob scowled, "You came to the dance with Belle, and you've been obviously flirting with other girls all night."

"So?" he shrugged.

"So that's not right!" Jacob said, holding his trembling fists by his side, "You came with her! You should have eyes only for her! If you come with someone as beautiful and amazing as her you should at least _pretend _to care!"

Locke crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow, taking a step closer to Jacob so there was only really a foot's worth of space between them, "And why do _you_ care so much. She's not your date."

The two boys were eye to eye, Jacob's flashing like a hurricane and Locke's raring for a fight.

"Because- uh-" Jacob fumbled for an answer.

Locke smirked, "Well she's _my _date, Lover-Boy, and she promised me she'd give me quite the show later, so-"

A red haze tinted the edges of Jacob's vision, and he swung at Locke's stomach, catching him off guard. His efforts were rewarded with an indignant "Oof!" Locke took a swing at Jacob, but he ducked out of the way, popping his leg out to try to catch the other boy off guard, but Locke saw it coming, and moved out of the way, and plunged his elbow into Jacob's side. The raven haired teen pretended to be winded by the blow before lashing out and catching his opponent in the collarbone, causing the other boy to stumble back. Jacob took the opportunity, and, remembering something his sister taught him, kicked Locke's kneecap, causing the other boy to hit the ground.

A few of Locke's friends surged forward, then hesitated.

"Dude," one said, "His parents-"

"() his parents!" Locke crowed, "Just get him!"

His friends surged forward, coming at Jacob from different angles. He lashed out with his leg, landing a glancing blow, but the teens kept coming. One reached for his left arm and he elbowed him straight in the gut, temporarily disabling him, but another attempted to grab his other arm while he was distracted. He swung at him with his legs, and the teen weakened his grip, but one of the other teens captured his other arm just as he tried to wrench his right arm free, effectively disabling his arms. The two swung him at the ground where the one he'd elbowed in the stomach grabbed his leg and pinned them.

Jacob mentally cursed himself for his impulsiveness, he knew he was able to fight significantly better than that. If only he'd fought with his mind and not his emotions.

Locke limped over from where he'd stumbled into a standing position and swung at him, and pain blossomed out of his right eye. Another swing, and he was slightly winded. Finally, it was time.

The sprinklers went off, distracting Locke and his friends. The water gathered around Jacob, healing him and giving him more energy. This time, he stopped to assess Locke, and he was about to attack when someone stepped between them.

"Locke Force, Jacob Jackson, come with me," the middle-aged woman said, before turning and walking towards the gym's exit. The teacher must have finally been able to break through the ring of students around where the boys were fighting.

It finally sunk in what Jacob just did. He was _so_ dead.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

After Jacob left and a couple of idiots finished fighting in the middle of the room, Rose and Aiden were left to themselves. They stared at each other, and a slow song began playing. Aiden's cheeks flushed, but he mustered up his courage.

"How- Uh- Rose-" He said haltingly, then took a deep breath, "Should we dance?"

Rose's mouth fell open for a moment in a perfect 'O' (no small feat, mind you,) then she snorted.

"Yes, Pikachu, I suppose we should," she said, emanating her typical sass.

He hesitantly moved closer to her, the whole situation rating way higher on his awkward scale than he would've liked. She rolled her eyes at his awkward, gentleman style antics, and placed his hand on her back before wrapping her arms around him. He pulled her closer, and they awkwardly swayed back and forth. He wouldn't admit it, but it felt nice holding her close to him like this.

Then she sneezed, and she burnt a hole in his shirt.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

It didn't surprise Belle that somehow, between her friend going with some boy to have some fun, and her absolutely hating her date that she ended up back on her couch with Doritos, Lay's, popcorn, candy, Coca-Cola and Pepsi in sweatpants and her STAR Labs sweatshirt watching Big Bang Theory. She'd gone to the bathroom, and when she got back Jacob was gone, and her brother (the imbecile) had finally made a move on Rose. So, she did the smart thing.

She stayed up until dawn watching the Big Bang Theory.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

"Mr. Force," Senora Rauss said as she sat behind her desk, "I'll speak with you later, go wait in the lobby. And you, Mr. Jackson, have a seat."

He sat hesitantly, hovering on the edge of the seat. Fidgeting uncomfortably under her harsh gaze, Jacob was relieved when she opened her mouth the reprimand him.

"As my half-nephew," she began, and Jacob gulped, "I would think you smarter than to start a fight where it's uncalled for. I know my sister the sea spawn would've raised you well enough not to pick fights, and I know you can fight better than that. What provoked you?"

He murmured something incoherent, refusing to raise his green eyes to her grays, then upon further scrutiny, cleared his throat, "He was flirting with girls. That weren't the girl he brought to the dance, who is amazing, and pretty and talented…"

He flushed with embarrassment, and the teacher smirked knowingly at him, "Just like the Sea-Spawn, rushing into decisions without thinking them through just because it was the 'right thing.' Except, you don't have someone like you're mother to keep you in line."

He made a grossed out face at the comment.

The blonde haired woman looked over his file and raised an eyebrow, "You have no recorded disciplinary offenses so I'll let you off this time, just don't do it again, alright?"

He nodded mutely, and she smirked, "Alright, you're free to go. Send Mr. Force in here on your way out, alright?"

Jacob let himself out, following her instructions, and walked slowly home. Overall, the dance sucked for him. He failed to dance with or talk to Belle, he got in a fight, and his best friends still didn't realize how awkward it was for him around all their accidental flirting. But hey, he thought wryly, at least he'd get that virtual reality Pokemon game out of it. Maybe it wasn't so bad after all.


	38. Running

**Greetoids everyone! Another chapter for all you awesome peeps. This one's about Teddy, like promised. Thanks to everyone who gave me awesome suggestions or requests. Um, also, I hope Frank isn't too out of character. I have a hard time writing him. I might be able to give you another update (or maybe even two) before Thanksgiving, because my school is awesome and gives me the whole week off. So, if you're in America, happy Thanksgiving, and if you're not, happy Thursday! ****I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Sunday, March 20th, 16 years after defeating Gaea_

Teddy hated running. So naturally, when on his first day, his Centurian instructed the cohort to run, he decided he hated him, too. And the other Legionnaires, who made it look so easy to run a dozen miles in full armor. And by the time they were halfway done, he decided that he hated his parents, for saying he'd love the Legion. Then he decided he hated everything else, too, like the bird flying lazily by.

Wait a minute. An idea occurred to the nine-year. He focused, then hesitated. He knew this was a stupid idea, and most likely he'd get himself stuck. But then, he decided it was definitely worth it besides, he's have plenty of time to change himself back later. He focused, lagging further and further behind the rest of the group, until he felt his limbs change. His legs shrunk and thinned, his toes growing into talons. His arms extended, and long, brown feathers sprouted from his arms. His nose and mouth grew into a beak, and his vision sharpened. He was so disoriented that he tripped, but after a few moments he reoriented himself and with a few flaps of his new wings, the bald eagle launched skyward.

He chose that particular form as he knew no one would bat an eye. Bald eagles worked for the Legion, so no one would bat an eye at one flying by. A few powerful beats of his wings and he was zipping through the sky like a bullet. He spun and twirled, reaching up and touching the clouds before diving down, down, down until he was three feet from the ground, at which point he opened his wings, and flew up again. He loved flying, it was one of his favorite things to do. Every time he passed a person, though, he felt the weight of guilt, as not everyone could enjoy flying.

After a few minutes, he reached the end point for the run, and he touched down. Now for the hard part. He knew he had maybe twenty minutes until the Legion caught up with him, which hopefully would be enough time. He focused, trying to remember the things that made him human (at least partially), like his father taught him to. A couple times he was startled, and had to start over again, but he was able to change back into his human form when he could only just hear the thundering of the Legion's footsteps.

They approached quickly, golden armor glinting. Centurion Daniel scowled at him when he spotted him, and beckoned Centurion Lucy over.

"Zhang!" The legacy of Mars yelled as he stormed over, "You were instructed to run!"

"I did," Teddy said, not realizing how angry he'd made the other Roman, "Then I got tired and flew."

"You were supposed to run the whole time!" The brown-haired Centurion yelled, "As punishment, according to tradition, you will be sewn into a sack of ang-"

"Daniel," Lucy chided, "He's only nine."

The legacy of Trivia knelt down to Teddy's level, "We won't punish you this time, but next week when we do conditioning again, you have to stay on land, okay?"

The golden-eyed boy nodded vigorously, then took off running towards the barracks, since the Legion was done training for the day.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Sunday, March 28th, 16 years after defeating Gaea_

Teddy made it a little farther this time before he decided he didn't want to run anymore. He remembered what Centurion Lucy told him about not flying this time. Good thing he had a backup plan.

He slowed down and whistled like Uncle Percy taught him two summers ago, pulling a chunk of gold out of his pocket. Woe and behold, moments later his mother's horse, Arion, came, and chomped happily on the gold. By now the rest of the Cohort was out of sight.

Arion finished his snack and flipped his mane, as if saying _Well? You gonna ride me already?_

Teddy climbed clumsily on his back, then nudged his flank with his feet. Arion took off, and in just a few seconds they'd covered the remaining land. The Asian boy patted the stallion a moment in thanks, then the horse took off again.

Neither Centurion was happy to see Teddy, once again, waiting for them at the end of the course. They shared a look, then walked up to him.

"Teddy," Lucy said in the tone his mother used on him when he dug a hole somewhere he shouldn't have, "I told you that you had to run it yourself today."

He shook his head, "No you didn't. You said 'stay on land'. Arion _was _on land."

She sighed, swiping some dark locks out of her face, "Next time you have to run it yourself, or I won't be able to keep you out of the weasel sack."

The nine-year-old once again nodded vigorously before leaving.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Sunday, April 5th, 16 years after defeating Gaea_

"But I _did _run it myself!" Teddy defended.

"You turned into a cheetah," his Centurion said in a measured tone.

"So? I still ran it," he said.

She ran her hands through her inky ponytail in exasperation, glancing over at her partner, who was so fired up she wouldn't let him anywhere near the child. She seemed to come to a decision.

"Teddy," she said, grabbing his hand, "We're going to go talk to your parents. Okay?"

He nodded confusedly, as he had, technically followed the rules, and let her lead him towards New Rome.

Soon enough, they located his father, and when Teddy saw his father's face when Lucy explained what was going on, he regretted everything instantly.

"Theodore," the Asian man stated.

"Yes?" he said meekly, forcing himself to look at his father's face.

"You have to do the running like a mortal, okay?"

Teddy sniffled, "But I don't like running."

His father smiled wearily, "I know buddy, I felt that way too, but if you do it the right way, soon you won't hate it so much."

"But-"

"No buts," he said, "Lucy, you may go."

She left, her work complete, and Frank Zhang continued, "Teddy, we'll discuss a possible punishment when your Hazel gets home from her trip with Uncle Nico, alright?"

Teddy nodded.

Frank smiled at him, "So, in the meantime…"

His son's eyes lit up, he knew what was coming, "You wanna go dig a hole?"


	39. Strength

**Hereo, everyone. This chapter turned out a little longer than I anticipated, so... More for you to read, yay! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. I have an idea for a Thanksgiving themed one that I'll hopefully be able to upload soon. If you guys want to see any Christmas themed one-shots, let me know, either through PM or review. Not sure if I'll get around to writing any on my own, so... Yeah. Let me know. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Tuesday, May 23rd, 20 years after defeating Gaea_

Emmy scowled at him. Most of her injuries had been healed through a combination of ambrosia and salt water, leaving a few new scars and only the worst unhealed.

"I'm no healer Emily, but even I know you can't go swimming," Ace chided tiredly.

"I'm going swimming," she stated. Her eyes were dark and flashing, and Ace had to force himself not to shy away from his fifteen year old best friend.

She scooted closer to him on the couch, and there was a part of him that wanted her to snuggle up against him while he ran his hand through her hair. He tried to push those thoughts away, she was his best friend, even if she had gotten to be really pretty, in his opinion. She moved close enough there were only a couple of inches between her legs and his. She turned to look at him.

"So is no still your answer?" she asked, flashing him a grin that would've made him weak in the knees had he been standing. Sometimes he swore she knew about his crush.

He hesitated, noticing something off about her grin, "Yes?"

She scowled, and kicked him with her right leg. Hard. And dear gods did it hurt, he thought as he bit back a string of curses. He warned them not to give her a hard cast, but they did anyway, much to his chagrin.

The blonde grinned triumphantly, and climbed awkwardly to her feet, "Screw your rules, I'm going swimming. The thing's water-proof, I don't see the problem."

She didn't grab the crutches she was supposed to use to walk, and awkwardly limped to the stairs in her full leg cast. Ace groaned. He hated being in charge of making sure she follows the rules of having a cast. '_She's more like her father than she realizes,' _he remembers her mother telling him, '_She doesn't accept being told she can't fight.'_

Unfortunately, Mrs. Jackson had neglected to advise him on how to deal with her stubbornness and mile high independence streak. He warily tested his leg, and when it almost buckled, he actually did curse. He sat back down and used his very, very limited healing magic to lessen the damage the legacy did to his shin, and tried again. He waited at the bottom of the stairs for her, but when she didn't show up after roughly fifteen minutes, he went up to her room to investigate. He knocked, and when she didn't object he opened the door, only to see her salute as she closed the window. From the outside. He groaned.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Ace found Emmy right where he thought he would. In the ocean. He rubbed his face tiredly. She was swimming around like a dolphin in a surf shirt and shorts, propelling herself into the air then sinking into the water for impossibly long periods of time before surfacing again. She was enjoying herself being in her element.

Ace groaned. Again. He began the trek towards camp.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

He told his half-brother to wait outside the Jackson residence, whom he'd brought to put a new cast on Emmy since she'd removed hers and likely dumped it in the ocean, then went through the house and out the back door so he was staring at the surf. He looked for Emily, but couldn't see her anywhere, which was when he noticed that she'd carved out a message in the sand. Show-off, he mentally teased, then wandered back inside her house. The dirty-blonde haired boy climbed down the stairs into the basement, where she said she'd be. To his frustration, when he found her at the bottom of the steps, she was in the training arena practicing with her sword. With complete disregard to her leg.

He pulled his bow out of his pack and shot an arrow in front of her to get her attention, the safest way to do so when she was in possession of a sharp object. She lowered her sword, and he could see her swaying slightly back and forth, almost as if she was sick with a fever.

"Ace," she said coldly, and he couldn't help but flinch, "I know what you're going to say.

He took a step or two closer to her so that he was only about a yard away from her, but was at a loss for how to respond, even if he should've seen that coming.

She nodded to herself, before picking up her sword with tremendously more effort than she usually does so, "Thought so."

She returned to hacking away at the dummy in front of her, but he could see now that she lacked the usual grace she possessed with a blade, and was instead awkwardly fumbling the moves.

"Emily," he murmured, realizing what she'd done, "You can't do this to yourself."

Her arms drooped, but she forced herself to keep going, and he grabbed her arm, forcing it off the handle, and without the support, the sword, now being held only by her other hand, sunk to the floor.

She tried to pull away, but he tightened his grip, and she stopped her half-hearted escape attempts, "I had to, Gasball."

He ignored the half-hearted insult in the nickname, one of his least favorites, "Emily-"

"I had to!" she shouted, almost hysterically, then she took a deep breath brushing some hair behind her ear, "I had to."

Even in her arm, he could feel how her skin was flushed with fever, "Do you know what could've happened?"

"Ace-" She dropped the teasing tone.

"Do you know what could've happened!" He forced on, "You're burning up. If you'd taken any more you would've spontaneously combusted. Your bones would've vaporized to sand. Emily, you can't keep pushing yourself like this. You're a-"

"I'm a legacy, I know!" She wrenched her arm from his grip, "I _know_! I hear it _every single day_! I'm not as strong as a demigod, I'm not as smart as a demigod, I'm not as loyal as a demigod, not as _perfect_ as a demigod. I've heard it all! I thought if I succeeded I could show them I'm one of them, but then I _failed_ and it haunts me every day. Every. Single. Day."

She grabbed a knife and threw at a target, sinking it in all the way to the hilt, "I _had _to do it."

"No you didn't. You didn't see yourself crawling across Camp borders, Emily," he stepped closer to her, resting a hand on her shoulder, watching her as she determinedly faced away, "I thought- I thought I'd lost you. You were bleeding everywhere. Multiple sprains, a broken femur. They said you'd lost roughly a third of your blood. If it weren't for godly healing, well, you may not have made it, Emily."

She still didn't turn to him, but he could hear the anguish in her voice, "That's _why_, Ace. I can't sit around and do nothing. I need to be better, stronger. I can't let that happen again. It was supposed to be routine, simple, and I _failed_. If it wasn't a solo quest, well, I don't know if I could've- Could've dealt with the consequences for that weakness."

Ace softened. He never could stay mad at her, anyway. "Emily, it's not your fault-"

"It Is!" She hissed venomously.

"It's _not_," He continued, "Chiron said those monsters had been waiting all your life for you to leave the borders on your own, there's no way you could've stopped what happened."

"Argus had barely left me at the Greyhound station," she deadpanned.

"And you got kidnapped by almost an army of monsters that had all agreed they wanted revenge on your parents. You're lucky you got away with your life."

"It shouldn't have come to that to start with," she responded stubbornly.

Ace knew he was getting nowhere, so he switched tactics, "Just promise me you won't stress your leg so it heals right. I can't lose you, you're my best friend, Emily."

She hesitated, "I'll try."

He smiled hesitantly at her, knowing that was the best he was going to get, then started leading her dangerously swaying form to where he prayed to his father that his half-brother was still waiting.


	40. Knock Knock, Filthy, and Seem Familiar?

**Hey everyone, so... Sorry for the long update gap. Last weekend I was really busy, and this weekend I was still pretty busy. But hey, I've got a (hopefully) long Christmas themed chapter in the works right now, so be happy and excited for that, right? Anyway, this is a trio of drabbles themed around Percy and Annabeth's family that I had sitting on my Drive, so I figured I should give you something to hold you all over. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome!**

**-ROC6**

_Monday, July 10th, 20 years after defeating Gaea_

Emmy was leaning against the wall of the Athena cabin. It's pretty much where she lives during the summer. She rarely stops home, only every two weeks or so (, which is when her parents do the laundry), so as to get an authentic Camp Half-Blood experience, so this was one of the best places for her to sit down and read. Her hair was falling out of her hastily done ponytail in long blonde locks, and there was a lot of activity going on around her, but her green eyes were skittering so quickly across the pages it was obvious she was so absorbed in reading The Partials that she was completely unaware of anything going on around her.

Or she was, at least, until a certain tan-skinned boy she recognized as Ace walked over to where she was sitting and sat down next to her. He waited a minute or two, at which point she finally looked up from what she was reading.

"What?" she said irritably.

He grinned cheekily, "Nothing. I just wanted to spend time with you."

She rolled her eyes at him, but went back to reading without another word. They sat in each other's company for another few minutes.

The boy, who was moving so much it seemed as though he'd just had three espressos, glanced at the blonde next to him and smiled slyly, "Hey Emily?"

"What?" she said, after a moment, and he prayed for her sake that she never got attacked by a monster while she was reading.

"Knock knock."

"No," she said in a no-nonsense tone, but he ignored it.

"Knock knock."

"No."

"Knock knock."

"No."

"Knock knock."

The blonde buried her face in her hands with a groan, realizing he wasn't going to stop, "Fine. Who's there?"

Ace's face lit up, "Okay, so what did the olive say to it's lover?"

The effect was instantaneous, and Emmy spluttered at him, "What? Ace! That's not even a knock knock joke!"

He was silent for a moment, a blush blooming on his cheeks, as though thinking it over, then shrugged, a dirty blonde lock longer than the rest falling in his face, "Let's pretend it is. So what did it say?"

The legacy of Poseidon shrugged, rolling her eyes at his antics, "What?"

"Olive you!" He said, smiling broadly as if this was the best joke ever.

"That is the worst joke I have ever heard," his friend deadpanned, completely serious.

He pouted, "Why you gotta be that way?"

She gave him a slight glare, desperate to get back to her book, "Because I'm friends with you."

"Aw, Emily…"

"Shut it, Bacon Brain, I'm trying to read."

He frowned at her, but he was technically supposed to be failing at medic classes right now anyway, so he shrugged it off. The son of Apollo stood up, "Fine. Bye, Beakums."

She scowled at the nickname, but didn't object. He was leaving, after all. Of course, a random Hermes camper chose to run by at that moment and knock her book out of her hands. Emmy groaned. All that effort, and she lost her spot. Of course.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Friday, March 12th, 21 years after defeating Gaea_

A strong sense of trepidation overtook Jacob as he knocked on the front door. His neat-freak of a sister was 'in charge' since his parents decided to go to Montauk, since they'd recently bought the cabin from its previous renters, for a day or two. It's not like they were being irresponsible, after all, both Emmy and Jacob were teenagers. Unfortunately, whereas Jacob was only fourteen, his sister was sixteen. So she was in charge.

The (blue) door opened, revealing his sister, her blonde hair thrown up in it's usual messy ponytail. She surveyed him with her piercing green eyes, the same ones he and his father possessed.

"You're filthy," she stated, as if it wasn't obvious.

The younger, black haired boy tried not to shrink under her gaze. It was a Friday, and they were playing Capture the Flag in Camp. Emmy, for once, had chosen not to participate. Something about needing to finish her science fair project, which wasn't due for another month. So, Jacob had seen the chance to outshine his sister and seized it. He almost won it for his team, too. Then he slipped in the muddy riverbank and got covered in mud. By the time he got up, an Athena camper had pulled the flag from his grasp and declared victory, leaving him filthy and ashamed.

Not that he was going to tell his sister any of this. He forced himself to look her in the eyes.

"This filth is important. It's a sign of how hard we've fought. It's a testimony to the demigod spirit. This _filth_ is important to us. Every little spot reminds us of something we've endured. It represents the pain, the fear, the sorrow of battle. Mixed in is the blood of our friends as we fought side by side for the greater good. Monster after monster, enemy after enemy. This dirt was acquired through suffering and hardship and nothing has the right to wash that away!" Emmy looked bored at this point, (though he knew she was still analyzing his every word,) but Jacob was on a roll and didn't care, "This dirt is a sign of friendship, bravery and honor!

"Every demigod that has ever fought for the greater good is represented by this dirt! Every nature spirit, immortal, and partial immortal! Not single thing has the power to wash away this filth and-"

"You tripped, didn't you," Emmy interrupted bluntly.

When Jacob didn't say anything, she sighed, "You're going to take a shower, aren't you?"

"Yes," he admitted, lowering his gaze.

"Thought so," she said, finally moving out of the doorway so he could enter the house.

He made his way up the stairs, because, let's be honest, the mud suit was getting itchy, and was halfway up the stairs when his sister called to him.

"Don't use your shower, I used it for my science experiment!" she called from where she was still watching him.

He groaned. Loudly.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Saturday, August 11th, 21 years after defeating Gaea_

The blonde woman watched the younger blondes hanging out a couple yards away on the beach. There was a boy with sandy blonde hair who appeared around sixteen, and a girl, with the same curly blonde locks as the woman, who appeared to be about the same age, trying to coax him into the ocean. The boy kept shaking his head, and she could see the 'No, not happening' hovering on his lips. A wave came up and pulled the boy towards the girl, where he pretended to fall under, eliciting a laugh from the girl.

The woman turned to the dark haired man beside her, a smile playing on her lips, "Hey Percy, do they remind you of anyone?"

He turned his vivid green gaze towards her, wrinkling up his face in mock concentration, then smirked, "Nope."

The girl had led the boy deep enough into the ocean by now, so that the water was lapping at their waists. The boy splashed the girl, and she was so surprised she was wet, and upon close inspection, there were visible water drops slipping off her skin.

After a moment, the traces of water dried, and she called, loud enough that the couple could hear her, "Ace, you Arrow Face!"

He laughed and slipped under the water, and the girl rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, as though waiting for something.

The woman turned once again to her companion and raised an eyebrow, and he stared back at her innocently, "Yes, Annabeth?"

"Still not looking familiar?" she queried, and he shook his head exaggeratedly, and she rolled her gray eyes playfully, muttering, "Seaweed Brain."

The boy, Ace, came out of the water with a shout and wrapped his arms around her waist, "Gotcha, Em_ily_!"

And though it was clear the girl had been waiting for that, she still flinched as his arms made contact with her. She turned towards him, and he stared at her for a moment, before pulling her close. She wrapped her arms around him and said something, though they couldn't hear it, and soon the couple was kissing in the surf.

Annabeth turned to Percy once more, and he feigned innocence back again, "Yes, dearest?"

She laughed at his antics, and he smirked at her, knowing full well who the young couple reminded her of.

"She is our daughter, after all," he pointed out helpfully, "And since someone should look after her, and that looks like such a good idea…"

He trailed off, and turned towards Annabeth, and, with a flourishing bow, declared, "My Lady."

She laughed, rolling her eyes, but took his hand and let him lead her into the surf.


	41. The Santa Trap

**Greetoids peeps! I know, it's a shocker I'm not dead, but I kind of went on an unannounced break for a bit there. Partially, because my teachers decided December is the best time of the year for homework, and partially because I had some big projects due in January for school. Thankfully, that's past and I'm trying to get back into writing for *checks numbers* all 61 of you guys following this. Cheese, that's a lot of people, so thank you guys so much for that, you have no idea how happy it makes me every time I see that number.**

**Let's see, next I wanted to address Princess Andromeda II's review to the last chapter, since I thought some of you guys may have had the same thoughts and I wanted any of you that felt the same way to see my response. They said Emmy came off as a little mean in the last chapter, and I wanted to say that that wasn't my intention. In the first drabble, with Ace interrupting her reading, it was one of those moments where you're reading an amazingly good book and are in the middle of an action part when someone interrupts you, and Ace was fully aware of that, and did it intentionally. That's just kind of how I imagined their relationship. In the second drabble, well, no sibling relationship is perfect, and that was one of those moments where they just kind of rubbed each other the wrong way. Sorry if she came off as mean.**

**Alright, almost done this whopper author's note. If you guys have any suggestions, want any information or want something addressed, let me know, and I'll try to keep up with it, alright? I plan to try for once a week updates before maybe eventually moving back into my old update schedule. I hope you guys enjoy this Christmas special, and stay awesome!**

**-ROC6 **

_Thursday, December 24th, 17 years after defeating Gaea_

56, 57, 58, 59, 60. Rose wriggled herself softly out from under her blankets, her Labrador plush clenched in her white-knuckled hands. Her feet gently landed on the pale pink carpeting and and she carefully began to slip down the hall, listening for any movement from her parents room, where they'd turned off their light a minute or two prior. (She'd counted to sixty before leaving her bed.) She reached the staircase that led downstairs, and paused to listen for intruders. When there was no sign of anyone following, she carefully picked her way down the stairs, having learned all the creaky spots to avoid in the month leading up to that night.

Offering herself a small grin when she reached the bottom safely, she stealthily made her way to the couch thing that her parents called a chaise in the living room. She pulled out the sleeping bag and backpack she'd stowed behind it before bed that night, and set up the Justice League sleeping bag on the chaise. She munched softly on one of the granola bars she ate while surveying the room. The evergreen in the corner twinkled softly, decorated with an assortment of ornaments based off family interests and places they'd visited. Perched precariously on top of the tree was a glinting, bronze model of Festus, something her mother said was her father's gift to her on their first Christmas together.

Underneath the tree was a pile of gifts to be distributed amongst the family, but none of them bore the tell-tale sign of Santa Claus wrapping paper. She smiled, she wasn't too late. Letting out a yawn, she glanced at the chimney, clearly visible from her carefully chosen perch. No signs of disturbance. Pulling out a device vaguely resembling an iPad, which she'd stolen from her father, she started playing Angry Dragons, satisfied that the various traps she'd set up were still in place. The clock ticked by, agonizingly slowly to the ADHD little girl as she switched from game to game, munching on the occasional granola or chocolate bar. Slowly, though, the time slid to midnight, and eventually one in the morning. Yawning, she closed her eyes for a moment, since she was getting tired, intending to keep them closed for no more than a moment or two.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

There was a loud bang, and a bright flash, and Rose jolted upright, sending her mess of curls flying. Smokey, the black Labrador toy, was clenched close to her chest as she stood up and carefully made her way to the second of her traps, where she could see a form struggling to escape. Taking great to care to stay engulfed in the shadows where her Night Fury jammies could camouflage her, she made her way her way to the form, which was sputtering and muttering incoherent phrases.

The first trap had been a flashbang 'borrowed' from her dad, triggered when someone stepped on the 'borrowed' pressure plate. The second trap had been a system also 'borrowed' from the workshop, which was a tripwire that would drop a self-trapping net onto the victim. In other words, Sant never stood a chance.

"I love that _chiquita_, but she'll be the death of me someday," The surprisingly thin Santa was muttering.

After watching him struggle a moment longer, the young Latina broke her silence and asked tentatively, "This won't put me on the Naughty List, will it?"

Santa, who's voice reminded her of her dad's, let out a chuckle, "Not if you release me right now, young lady, I need to deliver presents to all the little boys and girls, not just you."

"But," Rose frowned, "I just wanted to say hi to you, _Papá Noel_, the real you. Not the fake one we visit at the mall."

Santa, who she couldn't see really well in the near darkness, thought for a moment, then commented, "Alright, well you've said your hellos. Would you mind letting me go, now?"

The Latina considered it, but didn't move to free him, "I'm sorry, _Papá_, I can't."

"Why not?" He asked, not sounding particularly rude, just curious.

"I wanted to tell you what I want for Christmas," she explained, nervousness coloring her tone, "I was afraid my family would laugh at me."

"What is it you want?" Santa queried, a tender note in his voice.

"It's my sister-Hya. She's seemed a little down since Mom started focusing more of her magic lessons on helping Ember control her voice, and I was hoping you could make her happy again," Rose admitted, examining her bare toes.

"I'll do my best," Santa promised, "But why don't you release me, then go to bed. I'll have your Papi tuck you into bed, alright?"

She nodded mutely, before grabbing the tablet and freeing him, before climbing back upstairs to bed. True to Santa's word, her father was in a few moments later to tuck her in.

"_Papá _told me what happened," he told her, drawing the blankets up around her, "That was a really nice thing you asked for."

She rolled over so she was facing one of the walls rather than looking at her father's face, "Promise me you won't tell anyone."

He smiled softly, not his usual manic grin, "Promise."

Leo brushed some of her hair off her face and kissed her forehead, "T_e amo__, _Rose."

"I love you, too, Papi," she murmured, already falling into the arms of sleep, "_A__mo a mi familia."_

**For anyone that needs/wants a translation, Leo said _"I love you_, Rose," and Rose said _"I love my family."_**

**Thanks to the Guest who corrected my Spanish. Unfortunately, I'm only in Spanish I right now, so my Spanish isn't all that fluent.**


	42. Idiot

**Gasp, an update, a week later?! What is this? I told you peeps I would try to update every week, and so here we are, Week Two: Success. This time we have... (Drumroll) Aiden and Belle's sibling relationship! I know you peeps probably don't feel like reading a long author's note, so I won't drone on long. Thanks to StrangePeppermint for pointing out I wrote the wrong year at the beginning of the last chapter, I've corrected it. If you peeps didn't know it already, I liek it if you guys let me know when I make a mistake. I hope you guys like this chapter, and enjoy!**

**-ROC6**

_Tuesday, October 23rd, 19 years after defeating Gaea_

The Grace's were having a family night out in New Athens, which may or may not have been because neither Piper nor Jason felt like cooking that night. Regardless of their exact reason for eating at one of the locally run demigod restaurants, they were hoping this night out would be a good one.

The restaurant was quaint, designed to look like an old-fashioned Italian cottage, and the ingredients were amazingly fresh, which honestly isn't all that surprising in a godly city such as New Athens. The family sat down at booth with a wooden table and worn yet plush red cushions. Jason sat with his daughter, and Piper with her son, opposite how they sat last time so another 'so-and-so always sits with so-and-so' argument wouldn't break out. The meal was going relatively peacefully so far, and everyone had been reading the menu, which was available in Greek or Latin, both with English also written underneath.

After a few minutes, a brown haired waiter came by, flashing a crooked grin, "Good evening, I'm Lucky and I'll be your server tonight. Can I get you guys anything to drink, or would you like some more time?"

Piper smiled, sweeping her long (but choppy) hair out of her face, "I think we're ready, thanks. I'll have an iced tea."

Her husband glanced up from the menu and hesitated before deciding, "I'll get one, too."

"Great," the waiter responded with a slight smile, scribbling something on his notepad, "And for the kids?"

Aiden and Belle both glanced up and the same time, requesting their drink simultaneously in that somewhat creepy way twins sometimes spoke.

"Great," Lucky said, finishing some more scribbling before walking away. Once he was gone, the hesitant peace broke.

"Pepsi?" Belle asked incredulously.

At the same time, Aiden let out a strangled yelp, "Cola?"

Piper and Jason, having chosen what they wanted, lay their menus down and looked on in amusement.

"Why would you want Cola when you could have _Pepsi_?" Aiden's eyes were wide as he stared at his twin.

"Idiot," Belle commented, rolling her electric eyes, "No sane person would want Pepsi over Cola."

"I think you said that backwards," Aiden explained with a fake frown, comically widening his polychromatic gaze, "You meant no sane person would pick Cola over Pepsi."

She scowled, fingers twitching towards where her _gladius_ usually hung, (her parents were smart enough to have the children leave their weapons at home, this time,) "No, I meant it the way I said it."

"Uh huh, sure," Aiden said, pretending to clean his fingernails, knowing that was a way to agitate his sister further.

Sweeping her fishtail braid over her shoulder, which slid right back into place, Belle smirked, "Well I'm older, so I'm right."

This time it was Aiden's turn to scowl, grumbling, "Yeah, you never let me forget it. But 15 minutes is not that long!"

"Long enough to mean I'm older than you," she stuck her tongue out. Belle knew the age thing always set him off.

"Long enough to mean you're bossy, annoying and an idiot," Aiden retorted nonchalantly, keeping his barely controlled rage form simmering into visibility.

Scowling, his brunette twin pretended to shift positions, ensuring her leg brushed against his. He jolted sharply, "Hey! You shocked me!"

She gave him an obviously fake pout, batting her eyelashes annoyingly, "Oops, sorry."

Still frowning, Aiden replied with forced control, "You know what, it's alright, as long as you don't _start hitting yourself_ out of guilt."

Belle moved to do just that before she snapped out of it, "Hey!"

The drinks arrived, but the squabbling siblings were oblivious, and a wild gale ripped around the table. Jason shielded the table, both from the wind, and keeping the wind from agitating other innocent restaurant goers.

Having reached a pausing point in their argument, the twelve-year-olds glared at each other, then simultaneously yelled, "Dad!"

The blonde man held his hands up in an "I surrender" gesture, carefully asking, "What?"

"Tell her I'm right!" Aiden yelled at the same time as Belle yelled the same thing about him. The twins continued to glare at each other at each other.

Sending a look that clearly read _Help me! _at his wife, Jason chose his next words carefully, "Belle,-"

Aiden fist-pumped, "Aiden,-"

Belle stuck her tongue out, "I believe neither of you are right, and neither of you are wrong."

Since this wasn't what they'd been hoping for, the twelve-year-olds crossed their arms and continued glaring at each other, neither giving an inch on their position, though why they cared so much about beverages was debatable. Jason directed another look at his wife, and she rolled her eyes, muttering something about him being too scared of their children.

"Aiden, Belle," she said sternly, sweeping her kaleidoscopic gaze over the moping tweens, still heavily engaged in their silent staring contest, "Can't we all _agree to like our own beverages_ and be done with it?"

Their enraged glares glassed over for a moment as her charmspeak washed over them, before they found themselves nodding along in a agreement. The night out continued in relative peace.

Or at least it did for about five minutes, until Lucky came back and took their meal order, which caused an argument about which was better, spaghetti or lasagne.


	43. Journal

**Greetings life-forms, I'm here with an update that's _twice_ as long as usual! So, this chapter is really special as it's posted on this story's 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY! That's mind-blowing to me, so thanks to everyone that's reviewed, followed or favorited _Family_. And no, I don't think this story will be ending any time soon. I am curious if you guys have any suggestions for something you _really_ want to see. I'm thinking of double updating today or updating again tomorrow in honor of this story's anniversary. Tell me your suggestions, and obviously, I'm fine with constructive criticism, too. Thanks for an awesome year, I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome!**

**-ROC6 :D :D :D**

Friday, February 3rd, 20 years after defeating Gaea

_Miss White ordered us today to start a journal for our assignment. It's meant to be updated once a week, and each update must be at least five-hundred words. She claims it's for 'writing inspiration' for class. Since I have no clue what to write here, let me see how many words I've already wasted… 55. I guess I should just write about my week or something, give Miss White or whoever's going to read this some information on my life._

_So, hi. I'm Teddy (Theodore) Zhang. This is my life. I'm fourteen, I'm in the eighth grade and I go to middle school in New Rome, a city for retired Legionairres from the Twelfth Legion of Rome. I've been in the Legion since I was nine, so that's almost five years now. My parents are Hazel and Frank Zhang, and since everyone asks, you'll probably want to know too, so yes, they're from the Prophecy of the Seven. And I'm afraid they said no autographs. Sorry if you weren't going to ask that, really, but I figured it'll take up words, so I wrote it anyway._

_My mom, Hazel, is 35, and she's a short, African American woman with curly brown-ish hair and gold eyes. She's a daughter of Pluto. My dad, Frank, is tall, muscular and about 37 years old. He's Asian, and a son of Mars and descendent of Poseidon. They were both Praetors of the Legion at some point._

_I don't know what other background information to tell you, so I'll just talk about my week or something. Let's see, I had a math test in school. I hope I did well. We were talking about slope and graphing inequalities. In social studies we're covering American history, and somewhat discussing how Rome influenced it. This is for Literature, so you know what I'm doing there. How about science… We're covering heredity, so currently we're discussing mitosis and cell division. Funny story, actually, when I was little and I heard someone older than me mention cells, I stared at my arm for an hour trying to see the cells. It didn't work, obviously._

_Oh, another thing. My parents say that the Jacksons will be coming to visit soon, which is always good. Uncle Percy and Aunt Annabeth (Don't judge, I've been calling them that since I was old enough to understand the meaning of those words.) are usually nice, and Emmy and Jacob likewise. I can't wait until I get to visit Camp Half-Blood after school ends. It's always enjoyable. Uncle Nico's stopping by for dinner tonight, and mom's making gumbo. I don't know if he's bringing his family, or if it's just him, but he's doesn't make me as nervous to talk to him and other adults sometimes do, so I've always been a little close with my uncle. He used to babysit me all the time. I've just about reached five-hundred words, so I'm going to wrap this up right about now. I'll be back in a week to write in here, I guess._

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Friday, February 10th, 20 years after defeating Gaea

_I'm back. So today at lunch I was talking to Matt, and he was saying his family going to get a Labrador puppy this weekend. It's a black one, and they want to name it Ink. I've always thought having a dog would be cool, but we don't actually have one. I do have an aquarium. It has three clownfish, and… Some other fish. I go into the aquarium sometimes and talk to the fish. They're quite nice, once you get past the fact that they're, you know, fish. They have names and everything, but I can't really say them outside of the tank. It's just not physically possible as a human._

_There are War Games tonight, and we're playing Deathball, which is always a classic. The Fifth is ready to go, they've been planning and training for them, and are looking forward to experimenting with some new strategies. I heard they were going to steal some ideas from the Greeks and unleash some monsters onto the Field of Mars. I guess I'll have to wait and see._

_The Jacksons arrived last night. They rented a hotel room in New Rome, and my parents invited them over for dinner. Uncle Percy, Aunt Annabeth, Mom and Dad were talking with them about the 'good old days' (or at least, Uncle Percy was, Aunt Annabeth scolded him about almost dying not being 'good') and Emmy and Jacob were bickering. Jacob's a nice kid, and he looks just like his dad. He talks a lot about the other legacies of the Seven. I don't understand why the kids and school say it's bad to befriend someone younger than you. Jacob seems like a nice person. As for Emmy, well, she always scares me. She's got the same eyes as her brother and father, but I swear she somehow makes them look scarier. She's nice, too, though. Quite opinionated, and prideful, but nice. She doesn't try to hurt anybody's feelings, and seemed genuinely sorry when she offended one of my fish._

_They're actually helping in the War Games tonight as honorary members of the Fifth._

_Brianna came over today. She said her dads were off doing something important, but I didn't what exactly it was they were doing. Regardless, Mom was more than eager to take care of her favorite niece while they were away. Honestly, I don't mind, either. Brianna is more of a sister to me than she is a cousin, so I won't argue._

_I accidentally turned into a turtle during training today, a few Romans laughed at me, and I was so focused on their laughing I gt suck for a moment, so I had to go hide in a bush until I could focus enough to turn human. I don't know why I have so much trouble with the Blood of Pylos. Dad does it just fine, Grandmother did too, I know from the stories, so why can't I? _

_Anyway, it's almost time for dinner, so I'm going to close out for today._

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Friday, February 17th, 20 years after defeating Gaea

_Brianna left yesterday, Uncle Nico and Uncle Will came back. They thanked us for watching her, then Uncle Nico shadow traveled them away. I've always thought it would be so cool to shadow travel, but apparently I didn't inherit that particular ability._

_Andrew and I went to Matt's house today to meet Ink, the puppy I mentioned previously. She was really cute. Her eyes were this blue-ish color (I didn't know puppies had blue eyes) and her little tail was moving a mile a minute, despite the fact she kept bumping into things. I got to hold her, and she nibbled on my hand, I really want a dog. Oh, and that math test I mentioned in the first entry? I got an A, so there's that._

_The Jacksons will only be here for a couple more days, then they're going to head Back to New Athens. It's been really nice hanging out with Emmy and Jacob and hearing about their lives in New Athens and Camp Half-Blood. They were showing me Blackjack today, and they said apparently he and Tremor really hit it off, so I have a feeling Tremor's going to start trying to escape to donut shops soon, if what Jacob and Emmy were translating for me was correct. I told them I didn't mind. He tried to get into a coffee shop last week, but he got his wings stuck in the door. It was actually kind of amusing.  
My classmates were whispering about Alicia today. Since you may not know her, she's got this long, wavy cinnamon hair, tan skin and freckles bunched together along the bridge of her nose. She's really nice, and really into sports. I don't see how they were able to find anything about her to nitpick, but somehow, they did. I don't understand it. I heard some of the rumors that started spreading about why she's been out of school recently. They're saying she got an out of school suspension for looking up inappropriate pictures on her phone, and spreading nasty rumors about other student students. She sent me a letter. She's in Los Angeles right now because her grandfather died._

_I can't bear to imagine her face when she gets back to school and everyone looks at her differently for something she didn't even do. She doesn't deserve that. I don't know if Miss White ever plans to read this, but if she does, I want her to know that the rumors about Alicia will be too far gone by the time she reads this and there'll be no calling them back. And yes, a new rumor like that spreads every week, the discipline assemblies do nothing to stop the students from being cruel to each other. You can't really stop the rumors, either. The best you can do is ignore them. And it's not like I can tell them where she is, that's not my place to say._

_I've got to go. I've still got another week to write in here, so you'll see me more then._

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Friday, February 24th, 20 years after defeating Gaea

_I asked Miss White. She says she won't read our journals, which I'm thankful for. That would be kind of embarrassing. I've decided that this is a good place to calm down, so I may continue writing in here every so often. Not every week, though. School's been good, the Jacksons left for New Athens via _Air Pegasus_, and the di Angelo-Solaces are coming over for the weekly family dinner tonight, so life seems pretty good._

_War Games are being hosted again tonight, and then afterwards they're having another session for the retired Legionairres that want to participate. It's a monthly thing. It's alway a little strange to see the coldness on my parents' faces when they move to fight though, it's so different from their usual warm demeanors. Tonight is a double round of Gladiatorial Games. I probably won't do well._

_I've got a book report to write this weekend. It's about this book we've been reading in class called __White Fang__, which is about this wolf, well, he's three-quarters wolf, and how he gets to be domesticated and… Well, I shouldn't spoil too much of it for you. it's a great read. We have to write a page analyzing the strategies he used for survival. It's not that uncommon of an assignment, we do that for a lot of books we read in class. Also I planned to go work on the underground network I've been building, which involves a lot of holes. Andrew says I'm too obsessed with holes, but I beg to differ. Holes are awesome._

_Alicia came back to school this week. I heard all the snide comments people were making at her. I tried to deflect them when I could, but I couldn't stop everybody from saying things to her. I saw the heartbroken look on her face when she realized what had happened while she was away. She shouldn't have to deal with that, she just lost her grandfather._

They _were after me again today. "Asians are supposed to be smart, right?" I tried to ignore them. "So what was your dad thinking in marrying your mom?" It's really hard sometimes. They left me alone for a few days this week, so I thought they were done with me. Apparently not. "Hey, hey dude, what do you call an African-American Asian?" "What?" "A monstrosity." Except, _they _didn't say African American._

_I don't know what to do about it. Some people insult them back, and _they _leave them alone, but I could never do that to someone. And it's not like I'll tell Mom and Dad what happened (again), I know what people said to Mom when she was young. I don't want to worry her with what they're saying. It doesn't matter that much anyway. I just hate the way it feels when they say these things, but I'll get over it._

_This is all that's required for the assignment, so without further ado. This has been the journal of;_

_Teddy (Theodore) Zhang_

**The concept of Teddy being bullied for his heritage was something Princess Andromeda II suggested, so credit to her for that idea.**


	44. Story Time

**Hi. So... I missed updating last weekend, but before you kill me, listen to my reasons. I had science fair, after which I went directly to MathCounts competition. Then when I got home, I pitched with my dad for half an hour, then went to my friend's birthday sleepover, after which I went straight to batting lessons, worked on homework, went to softball practice, before finally coming home and working on _more_ schoolwork, staying up an hour later than I'm supposed to. I consider that to be acceptable. If you don't, well, then, sorry. This chapter is mostly Jackson family fluff. The concept of story time was suggested by WiseGirlGeek, a guest. Also, I really wanted to thank you guys for the amazing feedback this story has received, it makes my day any time someone reviews, favorites, or follows. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

**P. S. I don't own any of the various things referenced, with the exception of the DreamGram.**

_Wednesday, May 4th, 14 years after defeating Gaea_

"Storwy time! Storwy time!" Jacob was chanting as his father plugged in his DreamGram, an invention by a local son of Hephaestus that projected softly glowing images all over the walls. Jacob's was set to _Aquarium_, which he loved.

"Hold on a minute, Batman," his father chided him, ruffling his miniature mop of black hair, "I have to go get your sister first. _Then_ it can be story time."

The seven-year-old pouted, crossing his arms over his ironically Batman themed pajamas, then relented, "But huwry, alwight Daddy?"

With a chuckle, Percy left him jumping on his bed-he hoped his wife never found out about that-and wandered through the house towards the living room. Many of the walls he passed, which were once a 'tasteful' white, had hints of old crayons or mud staining them, and the carpets were threadbare and stained in places. Pictures of his two children covered many of the available wall space.

Finding his daughter where he left her, curled up on the couch, which was just starting to look worn, reading a book. Percy crept up behind her, then darted his hands out and started tickling her, causing her to drop The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, thankfully with a bookmark enclosed.

"_Da-ad!_" Emmy managed to get out through her giggles, "Sto-op it!"

He pretended to think about it, giving her a chance to breathe, then commented childishly, "Nah. This is more fun."

Sweeping her up, in his arms, he carried her through the house and up the stairs to her brother's bedroom, which was 'so blue it was suffocating', as she said.

Jacob looked at them with big green eyes, mimicking the expression Percy often made at his mother, "Now is it story time? Please?"

Scrambling out of her father's arms, Emmy, clad in pancake themed pajamas, launched herself onto the bed next to her brother, "C'mon, Dad! Please?"

"Well," he hesitated, scratching the back of his neck. He glanced at the clock, which read a cheerily blinking _8:27_, "You're mom wanted you in bed by eight thirty, but if you snuggle down under the blankets, I'm sure she won't mind."

The siblings cheered, and Emmy helped her brother crawl under his mess of blue Finding Nemo blankets, even going so far as to hand him Jerry the stuffed octopus. Then, she turned her piercing gaze on her dad and she slid in next to her brother, "Alright, we're ready. Can we have a story now?"

He grinned at them lopsidedly, as usual, "Sure, which one?"

While Emmy shrugged and slid her curled blonde locks out of their ponytail, her brother was adamant, "Paris! I want to hearw about Parwis!"

Smiling, the raven-haired man sat down on the end of the bed, "Alright, Paris it is. It was your mother and I's one month anniversary, and we'd been having a picnic in Central Park, right by where Grandma Sally lives, when suddenly a truck labeled the _Hermes Express_ pulls up, and out comes a man in his mid-thirties, with salt and pepper hair. Mom and I went to see what Hermes needed, and he explained that someone stole his ca- staff, along with George and Martha, his pet snakes."

Jacob, outraged, has to be held down while he tries to charge his dad, yelling, "Who would do that! That's mean! I hate meanies!"

His sister rolls her green eyes, restraining him, "Shush, Batdork, or we won't get to find out."

Percy smiles gently, noticing how much she seemed like her mother in that moment, then continued his story when Jacob's struggling, and scowl, died down, "He explained he was making a delivery to his friend Janus-" Emmy raised her eyebrows, though her brother was still enraptured "-and he found out from some air nymphs that it was Cacus, a giant. Not like the mean giants, no, he was a small giant, only really ten feet tall, and he loved to steal things from the gods. Hermes wanted me and Mom to get the staff back by five.

"We used Mommy's magic shield to locate Cacus the giant in the sewers of the meatpacking district, so we climbed down and down and down until we reached this huge cavern. There were cars and cows and all sorts of construction machines-" Jacob provided some helpful engine noises "- but the cave seemed empty of Cacus. Mom went over to the bulldozer, and out popped Cacus."

"No," Emmy said, eyes wide. She knew what happened already, having heard the story before, but she always loved to get really into it.

Jacob was so involved in the story his ADHD wasn't even acting up, as he was lying stock-still.

"Oh yes," Percy said with a smile, "And man, was he ugly. He had orange hair and freckles, and really pale skin. On top of it all, he was wearing Valentine's boxer shorts. In _September_." His children looked scandalized. "He asked if we were breakfast, but he we said no. He pulled out a cow, and breathed fire on it, before eating it whole. He asked us, 'What can I interest you in?' and started listing his entire inventory. We asked for the staff, but he said no. He thought we were Hermes children, but then we told him who we were, and he cowered in fear of our awesomeness!"

Emmy gave him a dry look, "Okay, so that's not exactly what happened. Actually, he'd never heard of us at all. He raised the staff, complete with Hermes two pet snakes, and, after turning the cows to stone, he turned to us and-" Percy hesitated.

"And-" Jacob started bouncing up and down under the covers in anticipation, "And he shot Groupons at us. He said he wasn't the one who decided to steal the staff, but when he wouldn't say more, we attacked." Both children were listening wide-eyed. "Cacus blew fire at me while mom stabbed the back of his knee. I slashed his leg, but he slammed me into the stone cows. I dodged his attack, then you Mom bashed him across the _butt_. We backed away, and I summoned the New York sewer system to break causing a waterfall right onto Cacus' face. We went up to the streets, but Cacus _still _wasn't finished. He switched the staff into laser mode, and we ran to a park, all the while with him shooting lasers at our backs.

"I distracted him while your mother started up a crane that had been left there. She picked him up after I snagged the staff, and used laser mode to kill Cacus. Then, we returned the staff to Hermes, and he sent us to Paris. We could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance, and all of Paris was lit up before us. We ate all sorts of expensive food and walked along the River Seine, looking up at the stars and talking."

"And it was the best one-month anniversary ever," a voice from the doorway startled Percy out of his reminiscing.

Standing in the doorway, still dressed in dress pants, a blouse, and her 'nice' tennis shoes, was his wife, looking to him like the most beautiful woman in the world. She smiled at him, turning her gaze to their two sleeping children, "I hope you weren't lying to them, Seaweed Brain."

"No, of course not," he promised, then amended at her pointed look, "Well, maybe a smidge, but Emmy caught me."

"Good girl," Annabeth nodded, a proud glint in her steely eyes. They stood in comfortable silence for a few moments.

"You know, Wise Girl," Percy commented, looking at the children, too, who were snuggled up next to each other, fast asleep, "That doesn't look half bad."

"No," she agreed, "It doesn't."

She kicked her shoes off, then padded softly over, welcoming his embrace. He pulled the covers back, and gestured to it in a way that read _my lady_. Suppressing a laugh, she climbed in, and he followed suit, falling into a blissful sleep next to his children with his wife in his arms.


	45. The Thoughts of Rose Valdez

**Here's your update, everyone! I think this whole weekly thing is working well. As much as I know you guys want more, more, more updates, there are, unfortunately, other projects, and other 'more important' activities I have to do, so I'm sorry I can't update more frequently. This chapter is two shorts moments where Rose is being quirky, and since neither of them was that long on their own, I decided to post them together. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome!**

**-ROC6**

_Tuesday, November 13th, 16 years after defeating Gaea_

"Alright," Calypso said into the receiver of the phone, "I'll talk to her about it."

The former goddess put the phone on hold, which she had been using to speak with a representative of the school, and called for her eldest daughter. A moment later her Latina daughter came tumbling into her kitchen, covered in grease and with one of her suspender straps having fallen off her shoulders.

"Yes Mommy?" she said, skidding to a stop and completely oblivious to the grease and oil marks being left on the floor in her wake.

Calypso sighed, when Rose came home saying she'd been sent to the Guidance Counselor, she'd called to hear what the problem was, and now that she had, she honestly couldn't blame them.

"The school says you drew a… Creative picture when they told you to draw something for Thanksgiving," she said, trying to gauge her third grader's reaction.

"Uh huh," the nine-year-old said, bobbing her head enthusiastically.

The cinnamon haired woman waited a moment to see if her child was going to say anything else, and when she didn't, her mother prodded her a little more, "Can I see it?"

The black-haired girl blinked, then scrambled to unzip her bag and pull out said picture, which she promptly shoved into her mother's hands.

"Look Mom!" she said pridefully, "Do you like it? All the teachers did."

Calypso examined the picture. It was fairly well-made, but still semi-crudely drawn, since her daughter was, after all, only a third grader. She was thankful for the crudeness. It clearly depicted two men dressed in Colonial clothes, but neither man was wearing shoes and both men were ghastly with how thin they were and obviously not Pilgrims. But the worst part? One man was eating the other.

"So, Rose," the hazel-eyed woman said, and her daughter looked at her expectantly, "Why did you draw this?"

"You don't like it?" The coal haired child whimpered.

Calypso comforted her immediately, "No, no, it's very nice. But why'd you draw it?"

"Well," she explained, nervously twirling a black curl around her finger, "Daddy said that some colon-ists ate each other when they got really hungry. He said they're called can-ables."

Calypso mentally screamed at her husband for telling their- her young child about the Jamestown cannibalism, but was careful to let nothing more that motherly concern onto her face, "Alright, but why did you draw it?"

Her daughter made a face, "I wanted to draw a realistic picture."

Sighing, the caramel eyed woman realized that the conversation was going nowhere, "Alright, Rose, but can I ask a couple things of you?"

"Ask away!" Her daughter cried enthusiastically, any previous nerves forgotten.

"Can you please not tell your sisters about this?" The chocolate eyed Latina nodded, "And can you please not draw any more pictures like this in school or tell your classmates about it?"

The young girl's face fell, but she nodded solemnly, and responded seriously, "Okay Mommy."

With a relieved smile, Calypso sent her daughter back to the forge she'd been playing in before calling her husband out for a chat.

"Super-Sized McShizzle in the house," he called, walking into the room and leaning in for a quick kiss. It was then he saw her expression, and he nervously queried, "Wha'cha need, Sunshine?"

"Why did you tell Rose about cannibalism?"

He gulped.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Friday, March 1st, 20 years after defeating Gaea_

_Clang!_ The sound of metal on metal echoed throughout the forge. _Clang!_ Leo couldn't really hear anything else that was going on. _Clang!_ Holding up the chestplate, he gave it a nod of approval, before grabbing the mess of wires and bits of programming he'd prepared earlier and tossing-he means delicately transferring-the materials to the workbench he'd lain the bronze chestplate on. It was then he became aware of the other person in the forge.

"Dad!" His daughter was shouting, waving her arms in front of him, "I've been trying to get your attention for five minutes!"

"_Lo siento, mi bola de fuego,"_ _Sorry, my fireball. _He said, waving his hands at her, and subsequently the dangerously hard hammer he'd been holding, "Why do you need the Super Sized McShizzle?"

"I had just wanted to talk to you about school," Rose said, sweeping some of her black curls behind her ears since they'd fallen out of her hasty ponytail.

"Sure," her father said, pulling off his grease stained gloves, then he hesitated, "You didn't get in trouble, did you? If so, was it a good prank? If it was I won't tell your mother."

"No, no, _Papi_!" Rose objected, "Nothing of the sort! Wait, actually… I don't think so, anyway. No, I just wanted to talk to you about what we're learning in science."

Leo painfully turned away from his prototype flight suit, pulling pipe-cleaners from his tool belt, "Alright, I guess. Go ahead."

Rose smiled, "Great. So, in science we've been talking about heredity, did I tell you that?"

He hummed in acknowledgement, still fiddling with the pipe-cleaners and pulling some rubber bands from his belt.

"Awesome. Today we were talking about how gender of offspring is determined," pausing at the look he gave her, Rose added, "No, _Papi,_ we weren't receiving any sort of 'talk'. Anyway, so, _chicas _have two 'X' chromosomes, and guys have an 'X' and a 'Y' chromosome. The gender of the offspring depends on whether it has one of each, or two 'X' chromosomes."

Her father continued to half-listen to what she was saying.

"And I was thinking," she smirked here, "You know how you really wanted a son, but got three daughters? I was thinking maybe you had no 'Y' (male) chromosomes to pass down."

The Latino hummed again in acknowledgement, not processing what his daughter was saying.

Rose rolled her eyes, and started walking out of the forge, "Whatever, _Papi_, see you later."

Leo just hummed again, before releasing his fully functional, pipe-cleaner dragon, which proceeded to hover in front of him. Then, what she said sunk in.

Spluttering, Leo tossed the dragon onto one of his work tables full of junk, and started chasing after his daughter.

"_Rose Esperanza Valdez!_" He hollered, running after her as if the devil was chasing him, "I am _not_ a girl!"


	46. The Babysitter

**Short, cruddy chapter, or twice the wait for three times the content? I hope you like the second one, because that's what I went with. this was in the works, and I promised this would be the next update, so therefore I forced myself to finish it. This is officially the longest chapter I've ever written for this story at over 3,000 words. I hope you guys are as excited by that as I am. Let's see, in other news, the fiftieth chapter is fast approaching. Do you guys want something special for it? Extra long chapter? Special topic? (Ex. Hya possibly repenting, more on Lily's home life.) Answer int eh reviews, if you care. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Saturday, June 3rd, 13 years after defeating Gaea_

"Aunt Thals!" Aiden called, racing forward beside his blue-eyed sister when the doorbell rang.

"It's _Thalia_, not _Thals,_" Belle corrected with a pout, pushing her lower lip out at her blonde twin, before yelling enthusiastically when the door opened, "Aunt Thals!"

Aiden scowled. He didn't see why he couldn't call her Aunt Thals, but his aunt just looked in amusement as the twins squabbled in front of her. Slipping inside and closing the door behind her, she walked past the oblivious twins, slipping into the kitchen where their parents were waiting. Both adults looked up as she walked into the room, putting down their PhirePhones (no, they weren't playing Monster Crush… Shut up).

"Hey lovebirds, I'm here!" She greeted loudly, slinging her mandatory Huntress pack onto a nearby counter.

Jason clamored to his feet and approached his sister, pulling her into a hug, "Hey, Thalia, so glad you could babysit."

Glancing out towards where children were yelling loudly, something about a 'Mr. Snuffles', "I can imagine."

The blonde man pulled back to about an arm's length from his inky haired sister, "Alright. Time for your briefing. We'll be back around midnight. The twins aren't allowed into Camp Half-Blood, or near weapons. Piper wants them raised vegetarian, so no meat. They should be in bed by 8:30, and I highly recommend you not give them sugar."

The six-year-olds came tumbling into the kitchen, still involved in their squabble, but froze when they noticed their aunt was standing there. Both children promptly attached themselves to her legs, hugging the silver fatigues.

Their mother, who had also approached Thalia at this point, smiled, then proceeded to talk over her husband, who was still attempting to instruct his sister, "We'll be at the Jackson's until about midnight. If you need us, IM us, there's a station and drachma down the hall. Come on Jason, let's go."

Piper grabbed Jason's arm, dragging the son of Jupiter out of the kitchen, "But I didn't get to tell her about-"

"I don't care, we're leaving."

"Don't eat any staplers!" Thalia teased with a smirk.

"Hey-" Her little brother called, but the door slammed shut, cutting him off.

Thalia turned her electrifying gaze to the two children, who scrambled off her legs. They both agreed she was terrifying when she was angry.

Brandishing one of her long, Olympian Silver hunting knives, she started polishing it, watching her niece and nephew's expressions when she asked, with a sly grin, "Want to go have fun at Camp Half-Blood?"

Both siblings were practically bouncing up and down with excitement, speaking together as they cheered, "Really? Can we?" Then, "Jinx!"

"Sure," the spiky-haired immortal said, as if it was the most normal thing for anyone to do with a pair of six-year olds, then added, thinking of their parents, "But only if you both go get dressed into some old clothes first."

The twins raced each other up the stairs, shoving each other into the doorframe and jamming their elbows into each other's' sides as they tried to beat the other into the blue swathed room at the end of the hall. Finally, or so it seemed to the ADHD children, they were changed and scrambling down the stairs again, only to find their aunt leaning against the front door doing something on her cell phone.

"Took you long enough," she commented, slipping the device into a pocket. She unlatched the door, opening it with a flourish, "After you."

The twins shared an excited look, then scampered outside, Thalia following behind, making sure to latch the door's lock again. After they ensured her they knew the way, the immortal teen let them lead the path to Camp Half-Blood, trailing behind them on the sidewalk. From behind, Aiden looked a lot like what she imagined Jason would've looked like at his age, as he raced his twin to step on every crack in the sidewalk. He was only a year younger than Annabeth was when she and Luke, a twinge of sadness ran through her at the name, had found her in a trashcan, eyes wide and fearful, as she held the hammer with a grip so tight her knuckles had turned white.

Aiden would never have that life. He wouldn't have to train with a wolf or live on his own in the real world. He and his sister wouldn't be separated, forced to grow up thinking the other's dead, they'd live happy lives, without the pain of war. Thalia smiled at thought, as the twins pulled her away from her more morbid thoughts, which she decided she'd stay away from the rest of the day, in favor of just enjoying the time with her niece and nephew.

"Come on, Aunt Thalia," Belle groaned, as she and Aiden each grabbed one of the Huntress' hands, pulling her towards the camp, "We need you to go first so Peleus knows we can go!"

The dragon snorted as Thalia passed, and though he raised his… eyescales, or whatever you'd call the eyebrow area of his face, at the twins as they trekked behind her, he made no move to stop them. Once they were across the invisible boundary that marked the difference between New Athens and Camp Half-Blood, the twins took off running down the grassy green hill, their chaperone jogging behind them.

Of course, the six-year-olds zeroed their attention in on the lava climbing wall, at which point their aunt sprinted to a halt beside them.

"Whoa," Belle was saying to her brother, "See how cool it is? We should go play on it!"

The blonde child thought it over for a moment, then his face split with a matching mischievous grin to his sister's, "Yeah!"

The pair turned to start their descent, only to find their aunt clutching the backs of each of their matching teal shirts.

"How about," she said, the children watching her expectantly, "I give you both a treat, if you listen to me while we're here."

"Okay," the six-year-olds agreed easily, knowing that a treat likely meant candy.

"Awesome," the spiky haired immortal responded, "How about we head over to the archery range and I give you a lesson."

The blonde and brunette took off running, only to circle back a moment later, stopping dangerously close to the lava wall's edge, at which point Aiden explained bluntly, "We don't know where that is."

Pointedly not looking by their feet, or even in their general direction, the daughter of Zeus gave a semi-uncomfortable laugh, then herded the children away from the edge, "Follow me, my young protegees."

Starting off at a clipped pace, her niece and nephew followed her obediently, mildly fascinated by how the sun glinted off the various silver objects she was wearing as they followed her across the field. As they wandered across the strawberry fields, some of the satyrs and dryads shook their heads at the daughter of Zeus, fully aware that Aiden and Belle weren't supposed to be there, but for the most part, they attracted little attention on their march to the archery range. Soon, they arrived at the corner of the camp, where they looked in wonder at the small army of silver-clad girls practicing, awed by the _twangs _of the arrows being released and the _thunks _of bullseyes.

A singly target at the edge of the line was left free of archers, and Thalia herded her young charges toward the empty lane.

"Who wants to go first?" She asked, watching as the twins shot their arms in the air, jumping around for her to pick them over the other, leading to her suppressing a chuckle before commenting, "I think Aiden wins this one, Belle."

The young, eager legacy was jumping in the air so high he'd accidentally made himself hover in the air about a head higher than his sister. At his aunt's selection, he fist-pumped, then almost ran out into one of the occupied lanes, but his aunt blockaded his path.

Crouching down to her nephew's height, she stared directly into his eyes, her gaze flashing with intensity, which Aiden responded to by stiffening and widening his eyes. He knew he had done something wrong.

"Aiden, you never, ever go into a lane where another archer is shooting," Thalia said, never breaking eye contact, "Ever. Alright?"

He nodded, thoroughly fearful, ignoring a muttered "Weanie" from his sister.

"Great," his aunt said, attempting to lighten the mood, which was overly heavy for two six-year-olds, "Come here, guys."

The twins walked over to the target, where, to their surprise, there was already archery equipment waiting. Grabbing each of their left forearms, Thalia strapped on a band of leather.

"These are called arm guards," the daughter of Zeus explained, "They protect your forearm so that whenever you pull the string of your bow back, the string won't snap back and hurt you. Never shoot without an arm guard."

Completely fascinated by what she was doing, the twins didn't bother to respond. Pulling a stick with feathers on one end and a dull head on the other out of a cylindrical tube, thalia continued her lesson.

"Here's one of your arrows. Always use blunt arrows when shooting at a target, don't risk what you don't have to," The spiky haired teen put the arrow away, picking up the tube with the strap, "And this is your quiver, where you keep your arrows. Here, Aiden, lift your arm... And there you go, your quiver."

The legacy was glowing with pride, similar to what those pictures of grinning Boy Scouts look like, showing off his leather arm guard and the strap of leather crossing his chest so his quiver was just peeking out. He then proceeded to stick his tongue out at his sister, who scowled.

Leading the twins until they were about ten feet away from the target, she held out a child sized bow to her nephew, which he eagerly took. He then turned around to reach into his quiver to grab an arrow, but the quiver was strapped to his back, so he ended up spinning in a circle a couple times before he succeeded.

Once he got the arrow out, his aunt guided his hand in notching the arrow on the string. She showed him how to hold the bow with his left hand, and how to use his index and middle finger to pull the bowstring back towards his cheek. He let the arrow fly-which soared straight over the target and into the woods.

He shot a few more, until he had about a half of the original dozen left, and most of his arrows were lost in the woods.

"Booger, stop missing!" His sister called supportively, blue eyes flashing.

He did the mature thing, and stuck his tongue out at her, but continued to completely miss the target every time. FInally, he had shot all of his dozen arrows, and his aunt told him and his sister to wait there while she ran into the woods and gathered all the missing arrows. Upon return, she found Belle repeatedly smacking herself in the face and Aiden sitting nearby with a smug look.

Grabbing her niece's hand before she could cause herself anymore trauma, Thalia sent a look of amusement at Aiden, but didn't comment on his charmspeak. The young blonde moved to the side of the lane, preparing to watch his sister fail as badly as he had, as his aunt ran through the same tutorial with her.

Belle shot a few arrows, and on her seventh try, she just managed to hit the edge of the target, after which she succeeded in repeating this amazing feat on her tenth and twelfth attempts. After fetching all the arrows and putting the archery equipment away, much to the sadness of her charges, Thalia approached Belle.

"You know, you were really good," the immortal praised, causing her niece to grin, "wait six or so years, join the Hunt, you could make a great Huntress. You'd get to spend all your time with me, and no more annoying boys like your brother."

"Hey!" Said brother objected, but his sister was nodding along.

"Okay, Aunt Thalia," she decided, "I'll join and be just like you but I'll be the greatest Huntress of them all!"

Thalia laughed, but didn't object to the child's goals. She escorted them away from the archery range, taking them on a tour of the rest of Camp Half-Blood. The children were wowed by pretty much everything, and began to ask questions to the point of being as annoying as Nico was Westover Hall. Finally, blessedly, the tour ended, along with the incessant questions. The sun was just start to set, the sky turning a glimmering gold over the camp and the twins starting to complain that they were hungry.

Finally, after a few electric currents and some self-inflicted pain, it was decided that they'd go out for pizza for dinner, so roughly twenty minutes later, they were sitting at a table in Pizza World, the local eat-in pizza joint. A waitress came by and took their order, and Thalia let the kids order soda. Once the waitress walked away, though, she turned to the twins.

"So," she started, "Pepperoni pizza? What happened to being raised without meat?"

"Oh," Belle explained, looking completely confused Thalia didn't already know this, "That's only when Mom's around."

"Yeah," Aiden supplied helpfully, "Dad takes us out for KFC all the time."

"Of course he does," the daughter of Zeus commented, making a mental note to tease her brother for that move later.

The siblings, losing interest in the conversation, switched topics and started talking about Pokemon, then the Wiggles, then about how chocolate cookie dough ice cream is better than other flavors of ice cream, and so on and so forth. Somewhere during their conversations, the pizza arrived, and after the pizza (yes, the whole pizza,) was gone, they ordered three chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream sundaes, much to the delight of the twins. After paying the bill, with an extra large tip for the waitress dealing with Belle and Aiden, Thalia escorted them out of the restaurant.

On the walk home, she pointed at various constellations, such as Ursa Major and Minor, Orion and Canis Major and Minor. Aiden personally liked Canis Major and Minor, Jason's favorites, Thalia remembered, but Belle preferred the Huntress, which still brought melancholy memories to Thalia's mind. She pushed them away. It amused her how Belle had set her heart on being a Huntress, since due to being a legacy of Aphrodite, it was incredibly unlikely.

The walk back to the Grace residence seemed quick, and when they got back, Thalia sat the twins on the couch and started going through their movie collection.

"Let's see," she muttered, "You only seem to have Disney movies. Frozen? Dear gods no. No princesses. No live action. Alice in Wonderland is just weird, Mary Poppins, too… Oh. Oh, oh this is just great. This is awesome.

"Alright, kiddos," the daughter of Zeus said, turning around, "I just discovered Disney made a Hercules movie, so we're going to watch it."

While the movie loaded, the Huntress walked into the kitchen, where she'd left her pack, and pulled out two grape lollipops, which she brought back into the family room and presented to the twins as a reward for good behavior. Belle continued to watch the movie just fine, (which Thalia enjoyed pointing out all the inaccuracies in,) but Aiden entered some sort of sugar high, so his aunt kept having to get up and sit him back on the couch, and even then he couldn't sit still for more than a few minutes at a time. For anyone else, without the speed and stamina of Artemis' blessing, he probably would've been impossible to control, but for Thalia he was merely an annoyance.

Thalia found the whole movie hilarious, particularly the part where Hera and her father were happily married. Once the movie ended, she relented and let the kids watch Frozen while she put in earbuds and listened to one of her favorite songs. Right around 9:15, when she was listening to the song _Centuries_, both the twins fell asleep next to each other on the couch. After watching them for a moment, she picked up Belle and carried her upstairs to her bed. The girl stirred slightly in the process, but ultimately didn't wake up as Thalia tucked her into her bed. Then, the immortal returned downstairs, where she picked up Aiden. He had sort of woken up when she moved him, but she was pretty sure he wouldn't remember it in the morning. He blinked at her a few times, and she noticed that his eyes had temporarily settled on a startlingly familiar shade of blue, before fluttering away to another color.

"You're the best aunt ever," he murmured sleepily.

She smiled at him, then tucked him into bed like his sister. After turning on their nightlight, she paused at the door, looking at the peaceful scene before her, before making the some popcorn and returning to the couch and beginning a Doctor Who marathon. When Jason and Piper walked in a few hours later, that was exactly how they found her in the dark family room.

The tired couple walked in, and found her staring owlishly at them, the TV's light reflecting off her eyes.

"Were they any trouble?" Piper asked, dropping onto the couch next to her sister-in-law. Jason joined them a moment later, and the Huntress turned back to the TV.

In the dim light, the daughter of Aphrodite thought she imagined the strange glint in Thalia's eye as she responded, "No, none at all."

**Thanks to Princess Andromeda II for suggesting this, and providing me the motivation to actually write this (I'd been planning it for awhile). Also, thanks to the Guest who corrected my Spanish in the chapter "The Santa Trap." Stay awesome, peeps!**


	47. Family Night (1)

**Hereo peeps! Your weekly update! Here we have more of Teddy Zhang, and since you peeps were curious, the di Angelo-Solace's. I only got one response on the 50th chapter special that's coming up, so suggestions more than welcome. Also, next chapter, would you guys like drama, or fluff? I'm not sure which one I want to go with, so let me know what you guys think. Other than that, for those that celebrate it, happy Easter, I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Friday_,_ November 3rd, 21 years after defeating Gaea_

"So," Teddy's mother started, turning her gleaming, golden gaze upon him, "How was school today?"

"Oh," he started, his spaghetti falling off his fork and his meatball falling back onto his plate with a _spoit_, much to his dismay, "Uh, good, I guess. I got my science test back, we're studying biology. I got an A."

The African-American-Asian teen glanced over at his Uncle Will, who was stirring his spaghetti with his fork half-heartedly. Teddy frowned, usually his uncle was Mister Sunshine, and would be all over him earning an A, especially in biology.

"Oh, that's great!" His father commented, trying too hard to lift the mood as Teddy shot a questioning look across the table to his cousin, Brianna, who shrugged.

Teddy's mother, Hazel, looked thoughtful, "I never got to study biology."

"It's awesome, you should study it," Will commented, once again half-heartedly, as his husband continued to send concerned glances his way.

"Maybe I will," Hazel replied with a soft, somewhat worried smile.

The blonde man nodded, but didn't comment further. The group sat in an uncomfortable silence in the di Angelo-Solace dining room for a few moments, until Teddy got uncomfortable.

"This is really good spaghetti," The black haired boy complimented his uncle, shifting in his seat, who was sitting next to him, "Better than any restaurant, that's for sure."

"Thanks," The ebony haired man said, "I think my mother used to make it this way."

Humming in acknowledgement, Teddy spooned-forked?-more spaghetti into his mouth. The silence returned.

Finally, after about a minute of silence, punctuated by the clicking of the silverware against the plates, Brianna couldn't take it anymore.

"Alright, I can't take this anymore. Honey Bunches, what's wrong with you?" She said, addressing her blonde haired father in her typical fashion. It's a long story, but it had to do with sarcastic flirting around a six-year-old amnesiac.

He sighed, setting his fork down next to his relatively untouched spaghetti. Running a hand through his hair, the blue eyed man explained, "I was offered a promotion at work."

Upon the confused stares and sarcastic "And that's bad… How?" from his daughter, he elaborated, "They want to make me to be the head of the Emergency Response Division. Said I'd supervise and such. Higher pay, more convenient hours, everything comes with it."

Teddy shot a look at Brianna, who shook her head, briefly revealing the thin white line stretching across her forehead as her bangs moved, indicating either she wasn't sure or couldn't tell him why her dad wasn't thrilled.

Will di Angelo-Solace was on a roll at this point, though, and the blonde started talking animatedly with his hands, knocking over the Parmesan cheese, "And the problem is I wouldn't get to work with patients. I'd get called in on the few complicated, hard to handle cases we receive, and otherwise all I'd do is fill out paperwork, file for experimental medical procedures and generally supervise things. I wouldn't get to work with the patients, I wouldn't get to help anyone, nothing, nada. I don't want the promotion!"

"Will?" His husband tried to intervene, but the blue eyed man continued to talk, waving his hands around in a way that vaguely reminded Teddy of the 1920s flappers his mother told him his grandmother loved, "And they went on and on about how honored they'd be if I accepted the position-"

Brianna waved her hand in front of him to get his attention calling "Honey Bunches!" But he was oblivious, so she gave up the approach, adopting a disgruntled look, wrinkling her freckled nose when one of his flying appendages smacked her in the face, square on the bridge of her nose.

"-and they told me I could have as long as I wanted to think about it-"

Teddy subtly kicked his uncle under the table.

"-and Jessica had this look like she already knew I'd accept the position."

Uncle Nico walked over to the freezer, carrying an abnormally large bowl.

"It was so bizarre! This is like the highest position in the hospital-"

The bowl was overflowing with ice cubes.

"-and I have no clue why they'd offer it to me, of all people. Honestly-"

The son of Hades walked back towards the table and began edging around it.

"-I am completely the wrong person. I'd never survive all the paperwork!"

Nico was now standing directly behind him. Hazel had a soft smile on her face, knowing what her brother was going to do, while Teddy and his father, Frank, looked amused but uncomfortable. Brianna was silently laughing and her face was starting to turn red.

"What were they thin-!" Teddy's Uncle Will froze, a comical expression of shock on his face, causing his daughter's silent laughter to turn audible. Ice cubes were resting in his hair, and there were a few that had visibly slid down his back when his husband dumped the ice on him.

Setting the bowl down on the table, Nico clapped his hands together, walking back to his seat with a semi-patronizing tone, "Are you done now, Honey Bunches?"

Brianna was gulping for air, and all the residents of the table let out a few chuckles.

The son of Apollo pouted, crossing his now-still arms, "I liked you better when you were anti-social."

Teddy was watching the discussion like a tennis match as his Uncle Nico came back with, "No you didn't. You complain all the time about how unhealthy I was."

Will blushed, "Yeah whatever."  
"Moving on," Nico said with a smirk, "Have you considered telling them you don't _want_ the promotion?"  
His blonde husband considered it, "Oh."

"Yeah, _oh_," Brianna chimed in, mirth flashing in her muddy eyes, then, "Way to go, Dearest."

Teddy let out a laugh at her antics, and "Dearest" smiled at his daughter. The conversation picked up, and soon the table was as rowdy as it usually ended up on Friday evenings, the adults having some sort of conversation while Brianna and Teddy discussed school, Pokemon, the legion, and how best to shoot chocolate milk out your nose. (Apparently, the best way is by laughing at someone tripping on a banana peel.) As usual, it was a few hours before the families split and the Zhangs left for their villa a street over, and the di Angelo-Solaces were left to clean up the remains of the night's activities.


	48. Sorry

**Has anybody else noticed that the chapters for this story seem to be getting progressively longer? Eh, not going to argue with it, am I right? Anyway, greetoids peeps. I'm here with another update, and since things had been looking a little too fluffy recently, well... *laughs evilly* Anyway, if you guys want something special for the fiftieth chapter, you better speak up, because right now we're on chapter 48. I'm wiling to do most things, such as Hya's repent-ish, Lily's thoughts, more Jacob and Belle angsting, you just have to take the time to review or PM me with your idea, and whatever gets suggested most will bet he fiftieth chapter special, so get moving people if you're at all interested. Otherwise, well, I get to have fun. :) Anyway, you guys are probably bored, so I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Wednesday, March 10th, 23 years after defeating Gaea_

Flopping lazily on the couch, the blonde teen stared at her boyfriend's feet from her upside down perch. Simply wearing black yoga pants and a blue tank top, she flipped around so she was facing upright, looking at the dirty blonde-haired teen lounging in the chair across the coffee table.

"Have you thought at all about where you want to go to college?" She asked him, reaching down to pick up the glasses that had fallen off her face during the escapade.

The tan teen shrugged, "A little."

"Oh, good," the green eyed blonde exhaled, sitting upright again, "So have I."

"Cool," Ace commented, leaning back.

After a few moments of silence, Emmy got bored again, "I've decided I'm going to major in psychology."

"Cool," her best friend replied again, then with the easy, charming grin she adored, "Which college are you going to go to? 'Cause I personally was thinking I'd go to New Rome College, give something new a try, but if you want to go the the University of New Athens, I'm fine with that-"

"I don't want to go to either of those colleges," the legacy cut him off.

He leaned forward, his face scrunching up in confusion, "But, you realize you have to go to college to be a psychologist? And, you know, you've wanted to go to college as long as I've known you."

"Oh I plan on going to college," Emmy asserted, green eyes glinting.

"But where-" Ace started to say, then realized what she meant, "Emily, no. Not happening. That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"But-"

"I _don't _care," he cut her off, setting his jaw, "I don't _care_! I don't care what you're going to say, Emily! It's suicide, there's no way you could possibly ever go to college in the mortal world!"

The girl jolted to her feet, "Yes I can! My parents lived in the mortal world the first eighteen years of their lives! Why can't I live in the mortal world, Ace? You livecd in the mortal world, why can't I?"

Following Emmy's example, Ace jumped to his feet, then threw his hands in the air, "Oh, I don't know, maybe because you're a legacy of Poseidon? Or that ever monster in Tartarus holds a grudge against your parents? Or how about you won't have the support of other half-bloods to help you? Do even remember how close you were to dying last time you went into the mortal world on your own? Because I know I do."

"But Ace, I won't _be_ on my own, I'll have you there with me," Emmy explained, the closest thing to a pleading note in her voice as she could get.

"No," Ace said softly, steelily, looking down at the ground, "No."

Emmy furrowed her brow, hand pausing where it had been reaching out towards him, "No what?"

"No! Just no _everything_!" Ace asserted, "I cannot enable you to do this. There is no way in _Hades _that I will ever go with you so you can do something stupid like live in the mortal world. I won't do this for you, Emily, I won't. I can't."

"Yes you can," the legacy pleaded, for what Ace thought may have been the first time in her life, as she reached out and grabbed his hand, "Ace, please, I need you to do this for me."

For once, Ace didn't melt at the rare vulnerable look that appeared in her eyes, and he yanked his hand out of her grasp, backing away, "No, Emily. Have you ever thought about what _I_ want? If _I_ want to live in the mortal world? What if I'm happy here, where I'm safe? Where I can live and learn and maybe start a family someday without having to constantly look over my shoulder."

Staring imploringly into his eyes, she countered, "But Ace, we can-"

"Stop!" Ace yelled clenching his fists, then unclenching them, with a measured breath, "Just stop. I can't do this for you, alright?"

"Please, Ace," Emmy whispered, hurt by the anger and bitterness in his voice, "I can't stay here. I need to go somewhere my parents' shadow won't follow me, into the mortal world where I'm not the daughter of the two most famous modern heroes, who saved Olympus an immeasurable number of times. I need this, Ace, but I need you to do it."

"I put you first, Emily, I've always put you first," he whispered softly, tenderly, brushing a few locks of blonde hair out of her face. Then, he snatched his hand back, his face red with anger, "I've always put you first. I've _always_ put _you_ first. My mother was away at war, but oh, you had a problem, and I listened. My mother was _dying_, but I said nothing when you came to me with your petty complaints. I left my life in the mortal world because you had hinted you wanted me closer. I have done everything you've asked me to do, but not this. I can't do this. Why can't you put me first for once? Why don't _I_ matter?"

Emmy forced herself to meet his piercing gaze, full of a fury she hadn't realized had lived within him, "Ace, you _do _matter. You've always mattered. I've never meant to hurt you. I- I love you."

"Oh you do, do you?" He was spitting mad and livid, and while she wasn't sure, Emmy thought he may have been shaking, "Then why don't you care? Last time you went into the mortal world on your own, you crawled across camp borders on the verge of death. Your leg was bent backwards to the point where I thought we might have to amputate it. Both your wrists and your-"

"Ace!" Emmy said softly, but firmly, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize it had shaken you so much."

"-ankle was sprained and your one shoulder was dislocated. Oh, and let's not forget the blood-"

"Ace!" Emmy called, louder this time, blinking back tears of frustration, "I'm sorry, alright?"

"-there were lacerations all along-"

Giving up on that method, Emmy leaned forward and kissed him softly, tenderly, trying to apologize in a way she couldn't say in words, but he jerked away from her almost immediately.

"No, Emily," Ace stated, she was sure he was shaking now, "I need to know. Why does it bother you so much, knowing that your parents are famous? Why can't you live in their legacy, content you won't have to see the horrors of the world in the way they had?"

"Because-" Emmy started, but Ace held his hand up.

"Don't feed me that crap about how pressured it makes you feel, about how other people want you to be some super powerful wonder baby. You can ignore them. I need to know why you just can't stand it."

She stared at him, green eyes wide, at a loss for how to answer his question as all her determination to move to the mortal world drained out of her.

He nodded, seeing this, "That's what I thought. You can't admit it."

The son of Apollo turned and started pacing now, "You've told me you want to do something good for the world, something that will change it for the better, but why is it such a problem that your parents have done that, too?"

The dirty blonde turned, staring her down, his voice deathly calm, "Let me tell you why. You can't recognize when you've got a good life going. You don't realize how lucky you are to have a loving father and a living mother and friends that care about you. You don't realize how lucky you are that you can live in New Athens and not a cabin filled with other examples of how your father will never love and be able to care for you. You don't understand how lucky you are to not have to march into war and save the world. You can't just be content with the amazing life you have because you're an attention seeking maggot that can't tolerate having anyone better than you at _anything_!"

Fury welled up inside the legacy, and she found herself shouting, "I'm sorry your life has sucked at times, and I'm sorry that I'm not perfect! I have _never been _perfect, and I know it, alright? I'm a disgrace and a failure, and you don't even care because you're too busy blaming me for everything that's gone wrong in your life, and I'm sorry you can't think for me and bend me to your will. I'm sorry for being my own person with my own dreams and aspirations and I'm sorry I ever wanted to challenge myself and try to do something new. But I am _not_ going to roll over and lick my wounds the instant you decide you're tired of me. I'm sorry I made you mad, but obviously there's more to this than just me wanting to go to college in the mortal world-which many demigods and legacies have done before-so either you tell me what's bothering you so much, or if I'm your problem, then just leave!"

He stared at her for a moment, his anger and frustration spelled out on his face, then he silently turned, slinging his backpack over his shoulder, and marched to the door.

Ace sent a look at her over his shoulder, and for once she couldn't read what he was thinking, but he closed the door behind him and walked out the door. Emmy sunk into a sitting position on the floor, all her vitality sucked out of her with the air that went out the door, and buried her head in her hands, her glasses lying forgotten on the coffee table.

**Seriously, though, let me know if you guys care about a special fiftieth chapter.**


	49. Hot Enough?

**Yes, I'm aware I missed the update last weekend, but my life is picking up, since form now until the end of May I have softball for an hour and a half every day, sometimes more, and a tournament every weekend. I really feel bad when I let you guys down, though, so I'm going to keep trying to update weekly. As far as the 50th chapter spectacular goes, the current winning vote is for more Belle and Jacob drama, so cast your votes because that could still change. I don't really have much else to say, so I hope you guys enjoy and stay awesome!**

**-ROC6**

_Tuesday, June 20th, 23 years after defeating Gaea_

The Latina let her fingers dance over the circuit board with a practiced precision, closing her eyes for a moment, letting the feeling of building something take over her. Snapping the last piece into place, the dark haired girl hummed with satisfaction as she could feel the vibrant hum of a ready to go piece of machinery buzzing beneath the pads of her fingers.

She and her friends were off building another contraption, mostly because they got bored and they were teenagers with ADHD and nothing to do. Thus, they were sitting in the lake bed of Camp Half-Blood building something. They'd each brought portable workbenches, and her two compadres were assembling a few basic materials, which meant attaching the glass panels and LED boards, while she worked on the more intricate parts of their entertainment. Were her friends talented with machinery? No. But years of hanging out with her had taught them some basic mechanics. _Some more basic than others,_ she thought wryly, glancing over at her friend Jacob, a raven haired legacy of Poseidon, who was assembling some basic parts while he maintained their underwater bubble, occasionally pausing to fidget with his blue t-shirt.

Turning back to her task, Rose paused a moment to plan her next step. As a legacy of Hephaestus, the Greek god of blacksmiths, she was more adept at building things and, as a result, her tasks during their escapades were always more complicated.

The teen was quickly interrupted in her work by one of her associates saying something to her she didn't catch, leading to her responding with an absent, "_¿Qué?"_

"You're hot enough, Rose," Aiden repeated, his focus clearly directed elsewhere, "Can you weld this for me?"

Confused as to why he would even need something welded in the first place, Rose started moving towards his workplace, sparks flashing between her fingers as she stopped a few feet from his workbench.

Raising an eyebrow as she crossed her arms, Rose stared at him, "So. I'm hot enough, am I?"

"Well, yeah, that's what I just- Oh," Aiden trailed off, his cheeks flushing bright red, "_Oh._ Oh gods, Rose, that's not what I meant, it's just that-"

The buzzing beneath her skin that she hadn't even realized had come as a result of his words lessened slightly at his words, but she rolled her eyes regardless, ignoring the snort from Jacob's worktable.

"-I knew you could weld this for me," he explained, lips curled up in his signature nervous half-smile, then, realizing what he just said, "Not that you aren't hot-which you totally are-it's just-"

The legacy of Jupiter slowed his frantic talking again, his face redder than the flames licking at Rose's hand as she melted his two pieces of metal together, "I should probably just stop talking now. And you know that's not what I meant."

"Whatever you say, Thunderpoop," she said slyly.

"Aw," Aiden lamented, "Not Thunderpoop again. I thought we were over this. I _hate_ that nickname."

"Oh, we were. But I decided to bring it back," Rose said cheekily, swiping her hair out of her face as she set the newly attached pieces of metal down, "_Thunderpoop._"

"If you don't stop," he threatened, whispering the next part in what was supposed to be a spooky way, "I'll bring back _the name_."

Rose whipped around so fast her ponytail whacked the side of her head, and wielded a pipe cleaner at him threateningly, "Don't you dare, Aiden. Don't you-"

The blonde grinned like a madman, "PinkiePie."

"-Dare," the Latina finished lamely. She scowled at him, "That was a dare from second grade! And you swore never to speak of that again!"

"Well, _you_ swore never to call me Thunderpoop again, but you did."

Still scowling Rose turned around to return to her worktable, "If we want to finish installing the disco floor in the lake bed by dawn we'd better…"

Aiden frowned, furrowing his brow as he turned to find out what had led Rose to stop talking, something that never happened, "Wha-?"

He, too, stood dumbfounded as he turned and found his friend, Jacob, sitting in a beach chair with a bowl of popcorn and sunglasses, facing where Aiden and Rose had just been bickering.

Confused glances flickered between the two legacies as their green-eyed friend commented, with his mouth full, "No, no, keep going."

He shifted, some, in his seat so that they could make out what was on his stark white shirt. After a moment, the dyslexic teens made out the writing, in bold black font, that read _Roden is my OTP_. The picture below was inked inside a pink heart, with two anime style heads, one a Latina with an impish grin and the other a blonde haired boy with a half-smile.

With the additional knowledge from the caption on Jacob's shirt, the two other legacies groaned simultaneously, and Rose muttered, "Not this again."

**Also, I wanted to respond to a review by _Muse45_, a guest: Thank you for your review, it honestly made my day, and is one of the nicest reviews I've ever gotten. I'm glad to hear that "Family" inspires you, it makes me so happy to hear that, as it's one of the things I set out to do when I started writing. I'm shocked one story had that much of an impact on you, but I'm glad to hear it makes you happy, and I will continue to write this, so thank you so much for your wonderful review.**


	50. Valentine's Day

**Greetoids peoples! So, here's your Fiftieth Chapter Spectacular! From now on, you get something special every twenty-five chapters! Yay! I would make a big deal on how this is at least twice as ong as the average chapter, yada yada yada, but that seems to be becoming the normal chapter length, so yay for you guys. Not guaranteeing over 2,000 words though, the minimum requirement stays at 1,000. I'm sorry this is late, but, well, I warned you this is the busiest time of year for me. Sorry.**

**Uh, Princess Andromeda II, one of my reviewers, mentioned wanting a really long chapter, that's almost like a short story, complete with subplots and everything. I wanted to know if you guys are interested in that type of thing. I considered making this chapter ridiculously long, but I decided that I'd rather get this up here for you to enjoy rather than waste a few week trying to figure out how to logically make this particular moment (that I may or may not have been planning for months ;)) more drawn out. Anyway, the review had suggested some sort of sleepover thing, but I wanted to know if you guys would be interested in something of that style. It would be posted on here, but it would be a side project to my (hopefully) weekly updates, so you'd have to wait awhile. Let me know what you guys think, I guess.**

**I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome! :D**

**-ROC6**

**P.S. I just realized I didn't put this up there, but I really am incredibly thankful to everyone who takes time out of their day to review, favorite, follow or even so much as read this story. Thank you guys so much. If it weren't for your support, well, this project would've died out long ago.**

_Tuesday, February 14th, 23 years after defeating Gaea_

Honestly, Belle hated Valentine's Day. She took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to slam her locker shut when she saw the small pile of envelopes sitting inside. Instead, she took a measured breath, counted to ten, and let the air out through her nose. Grabbing the small stack, she shoved them unceremoniously inside the messenger bag slung across her plain blue t-shirt, not caring if they crumpled or bent. She then grabbed the books she'd come to her locker for, exchanging her first period supplies for the ones she needed next. She closed her locker softly with a click, but by now her legacy senses were going crazy; she was being watched. Usually, this was around when Lily showed herself, since she often slept in thanks to having study hall first period.

"Hey Bedhea-," Belle started saying as she turned around, not looking up as she adjusted the precarious pile of books in her arms, "Oh. Uh, hey."

Her cheeks tinged pink at the awkward greeting, but in her defense, she hadn't realized who was standing behind her.

The teen shook it off, holding out a rose, "Hey Belle. Would you, uh, like to go out with me?"

The dark haired boy stood tall, but his eyes kept sinking lower, leading to him having to force them back up again. He did a good job of hiding it, but he was clearly nervous. Belle always hated this part, but she wasn't really looking to date, "Oh, I'm so sorry, James, but I'm not interested in dating right now."

He coughed, slightly, and started fiddling with the pockets on his jeans as he backed away, "That's alright, I guess. Uh, I have to go. Have a nice day, Belle."

He turned and hurried down the hall, and though he tried to hide it, Belle could see the redness creeping up his neck. She sighed, sorry to have embarrassed him, but her answer remained the same.

"He was cute," a voice said from beside Belle, startling her out of her thoughts.

Out of reflex, Belle aimed a high kick at the offending person, who smirked at her, ducking the blow. Technically, the school had a zero tolerance policy for violence, but it wasn't exactly enforced. Demigods, and legacies, too, tended to be more violent than the average teen because they, ah, had to kill things to survive. Weapons weren't allowed under any circumstances, (Belle worked hard to hide her pocket knife,) but some minor, friendly or accidental violence was typically not punished. Hence, Belle's reflexive assault not landing her in the principal's office.

"Missed me," Lily said slyly, flicking her glossy high ponytail over her shoulder.

"Don't do that!" her blue-eyed friend hissed at her, though she was smiling.

The Asian legacy rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything else on the subject, "So why you'd turn him down?"

Belle shrugged, mumbling something incoherent.

"Whatever," Lily decided, rolling her eyes, "I need to get to Health, and you have Honors Physics, so let's get moving. We can read your Valentines on the way."

Suppressing a groan, the brunette handed the semi-crushed pile of cards to her fellow legacy, who proceeded to skim through them all.

"Alright, so the first one's from Emmet Stoll-"

"No," Belle cut her off.

Hearing the bitterness that seeped into her friend's voice, Lily decided it'd be in her best interests not to press the issue with that one.

"Alright," the Asian legacy continued, paging through the envelopes, "I'm just going to skip this one from James Marshall… How about Logan Smith?"

"No," the legacy of Jupiter somewhat shuddered, "All he ever talks about is-never mind."

Rolling her eyes, Lily commented, "I like him. How about Harry Banks?"

"A girl asked him out this morning, you missed it. He said yes."

"Crud. I miss all the good stuff!" The legacy of Aphrodite whined.

"You wouldn't if you actually come to school and do work rather than sleep during your study hall," her friend commented pointedly, shifting her books again.

"Honestly, how do you carry all that?" Lily muttered, glancing at the pile in Belle's arms, "But Belle! I need my beauty sleep!"

"Then don't stay up until two a.m.."

Lily pouted, the corners of her mouth twitching as her lower lip quivered dramatically, or as Belle called it, annoyingly, "It's not like you don't do it too, I know you binge watch Game of Thrones all the time."

The Cherokee girl's cheeks colored, "That's not important."

"Hypocrite," Lily replied, receiving no objection, "We have Jack Murphy."

"Nice kid, not interested," Belle responded, effectively vetoing him as an option.

Mentally cataloging the card for later, Lily continued, "Rodriguez?"

"Rude," the other legacy stated, leading her friend to tsk in annoyance.

"Last one's anonymous," Lily commented after a pause.

"Look, Lily, I'm just not interested in anyone, alright?" Belle said tiredly, scratching the back of her neck in a similar fashion to her twin, "Can you please stop bothering me?"

Setting her hands on her hips as they stopped outside Belle's classroom, Lily glared at her friend, "Look, I get it your breakup with Emmet was nasty, alright? But you can't keep moping around like a kicked puppy, Belle."

"Lil'-" the bell cut off the other legacy's protests.

"Styx!" Lily swore, shoving an envelope into Belle's hands before she started running down the hall, "I've got to be on the other side of the school."

Then, as an afterthought, "This isn't over!"

Belle sighed, walking into her class before Mr. Rovens could get mad at her. As she sat down, she glanced at the crumpled white envelope clutched in her hand, wondering if maybe Lily was right.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

Belle didn't have any classes with Lily, with the exception of lunch. Sometime in the middle of Physics, she broke down and read the note. It was the anonymous one, and it wasn't anything fancy. She knew Lily hadn't read it yet, since it had still been sealed. The card had a simple, hand-drawn picture of a rose on the front, and the inside had a smaller rose in the corner and a simple message written in blue ink, which she found odd, but maybe a little endearing. The message wasn't long-winded or corny, just a simple compliment about how pretty she was when she laughed, and a note to meet the sender under the willow tree between 2:50 and 3:00 if she was interested. It wasn't offensive, rude or desperate, and seemed sweet, along with possibly vaguely dorky, though that may just have been her reading too much into the short message. She toyed with the idea for a few periods, and by the time lunch came around, she'd made up her mind that she'd meet the sender, though she'd never tell Lily.

She was _not _moping around like a kicked puppy. She wasn't. Not at all. Well, she admitted to herself, maybe a little, but Lily didn't have to mention it. _That_ was just not cool.

When lunch rolled around, Belle had been asked out, and as a result turned the asker down, two more times.

"Hon, you _have _to get yourself out there again. I'm sure there are plenty of nice guys who would love to date you," Lily tried to persuade her, without Charmspeak, thankfully.

Belle sighed, and her friend continued, waving her pizza in front of Belle's face as she spoke, "I mean, honestly, you can't base your whole love life off of _one guy_."  
"He was a jerk," the brunette shrugged nonchalantly.

"He was not," Lily objected, frowning at her friend's insistence.

"It was a double date," Belle elaborated, then when her friend opened her mouth to object, "In the middle of the _agora_."

The other legacy hesitated, "Okay, maybe he was a jerk, but there are other gods on Olympus, other fish in the sea, you've got to do something."

"Fine," the blue eyed legacy conceded, "But on my own time."

"So not yet," Lily sighed, stirring a bowl of… something indistinguishable on her lunch tray.

"No," Belle felt guilty for not telling Lily about the note, but she was vaguely embarrassed, as she was a legacy of Aphrodite and last time she tried she couldn't even keep a boyfriend. Lily, on the other hand, she went through boyfriends like tissues, and had a lot of break up/make up relationships. Belle wasn't interested in quick, exciting relationships, but seeing Lily with her various partners (her friend had dated a girl once) gave her a vague feeling of inadequacy.

Both girls were silent for a moment before moving on to other topics.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

"Styx," Belle hissed, "Styx, Styx, Styx."

Shoving the last of her necessary textbooks into her backpack, the Cherokee legacy glanced at the clock on the wall, which blinked a red _2:56_. A boy had asked her out on the way out of her last class, and now she was running late, and she really hoped nothing else got in her way because she wouldn't have time to deal with it and still make it to the willow tree by the entrance of the high school so she could meet up with the sender of the anonymous valentine she'd received and re-

She forced herself to take a deep breath. Shoving her fishtail braid hastily over one shoulder and her backpack over the other, she took off running through the halls, a lot of hurried "Excuse me's!" clearing demigods and legacies from her path.

Her sneakers pounded into the tile as she skimmed the ground, running from one end of the school to the other. She could see the door ahead of her, and she glanced at a clock, this one reading _2:57_. She allowed herself a mental victory cheer as she prepared to exit the building. Assuming nothing got in her way-

There was a hand on her arm. Why was there a hand on her arm, she wondered, struggling to free herself. Who had put their hand on her arm?

Trying to pull away from the person's grip, she scrambled something out along the lines of, "Sorry, whoever, but I can't go out with you and I'm sorry but I really have to go, I have somewhere important to be and I really can't be late because if I am then I won't be able to m-"

"Belle!" a voice interrupted her, causing her to blink. As she registered who had grabbed her, she started mentally panicking, "Look, I get it, you must have really liked Emmet, but you really need to get yourself back out there, alright? I know you don't want to date-"

Belle looked helplessly at the door, then back at the pink nailed hand gripping her arm, then back at the door, wondering if putting on makeup could possibly make someone's fingers as strong as Lily's because there was no way she should be able to have a hand that strong.

"-but you don't need to run out of school as though you're being chased by a herd of angry _venti_. So, you can _go meet with Jack Murphy outside for fifteen minutes_, alright? For me?"

The other legacy gave Belle puppy dog eyes as her mind sluggishly tried to figure what was happening, before launching back into its frenzied rampage, "Oka- No! Lily, stop it with the Charmspeak, alright?"

"But Belle!" she stretched out her friend's name, running a hand worriedly through her straight black hair, wondering how she could ever bypass her friend's stubbornness otherwise.

The legacy of Jupiter grunted, letting a subtle trace of electricity wash over her skin. Immediately, the other legacy released her, and she took off running out the door, guiltily ignoring her friend's yelp of pain and shouts of protest.

She arrived at the willow tree a minute later, but there was no one there. She pulled out her phone, checking the time, resisting the urge to curse at the blinking _3:02_. She was two minutes too late.

Not a moment afterwards, Lily caught up to her, looking genuinely offended, "What was that for?"

Searching the sea of people moving away from them, Belle sighed heavily, "No reason."

She knew that Lily knew she was lying through her teeth, but thankfully, her friend only pursed her lips, looking doubtful, "Well, if you'd come, Jack should still be waiting for you outside the gym."

After briefly weighing her options, Belle finally resigned herself to her friend's whims, "Alright, fine."

"Yes!" the Asian legacy semi-squealed, grabbed her friend's arm, "He's over here."

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

A green eyed teen leaning against the willow tree checked his phone, which blinked a blue _3:01_ at him. He finally admitted to himself she wasn't coming, wasn't interested, and worked his way over to his blonde haired friend.

"Dude," the kaleidoscope eyed boy commented as he approached, "I can't believe she didn't show. If there's anything my sister would show for, I was certain that'd be it."

Jacob sighed, tilting his head so some of his longer locks of semi-curly black hair fell in front of his eyes, "Guess she's just not interested."

Aiden hesitated, then shook his head, "C'mon, Jacob, we gotta go, Rose'll throw a tantrum if we're any later."

**For those that don't know/didn't look it up, an _agora_ is a central, open area, similar to a town square, and it doubles as a marketplace. They're typical of ancient Greek cities.**


	51. Hi, I'm Teddy

**Guess who isn't dead? Me! I honestly am sorry for the long update gap, but I did tell you that we just passed my busiest time of year. The good news? Summer vacation has started! Whooo! Thus, that means that I can update frequently from now on, hopefully every two to four days, at least until school starts up again. Remember, you peeps are free to request stuff, and I much appreciate it when you do, since it gives me an idea of what you guys want to see out of this story. Also, I want to note that while I don't frequently respond to reviews, I do appreciate the time everyone takes to review, and I even have a running list of everything that's been suggested.**

**StrangePeppermint: This chapter actually gets into the background of Brianna and the di Angelo-Solaces a little, and I found it ironic that you requested that when this chapter was already mostly completed. I hope you like seeing a little more of Brianna's background, and how she came to be with the di Angelo-Solaces.**

**I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Monday, October 17th, 13 years after defeating Gaea_

"-and then Mrs. Elliot told him he couldn't keep the yellow marker, and he started yelling at her, so she sent him to the principal's office, and I haven't seen him since," the little boy finished, golden eyes shining, "I bet he got in lots of trouble."

"Well, he shouldn't have talked back to his teacher," a woman with matching golden eyes replied, glancing at her son from where she'd been sewing something. The boy had no idea what it was, but she'd been working really hard on it since Uncle Nico and Uncle Will came over, and today she seemed bent on finishing it. Not a moment later, she pulled out her scissors and cut the thread, before putting down her sewing supplies.

Folding up what looked like some sort of blanket, the woman knelt down next to her son, just as his father walked into the room, "Teddy?"

"Yes Mommy?" he responded, staring wide-eyed at his mother.

She searched his face, "Can you be a big boy for a bit?"

He nodded earnestly, his face solemn, "Okay Mommy."

Teddy's father, a tall, strong Asian man, knelt down next to Teddy's mom, a small, African American woman, "Uncle Nico and Uncle Will decided to adopt a little girl. You've got a new cousin."

Once it was announced that Teddy now had a cousin, he started bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, but then he forced himself to stop and puffed out his chest, remembering he was supposed to be acting like a big boy.

"What's she like?" he asked curiously, trying to keep his excitement under control.

"Well," his mother exchanged glances with his father, "Her name is Brianna, and we can go meet her right now, if you want."

"Really?" Teddy asked, his face lighting up.

His father smiled, "Of course, let's go."

Forgetting all about being a big boy, Teddy started jumping up and down, waiting for his parents to be ready to go. After a brief check to make sure all the doors were locked, they were prepared to leave, and Teddy had to resist the urge to run ahead of his parents on the two block walk to his uncles' house. They instant they arrived, Teddy rang the doorbell, and a shaggy haired man answered the door.

"Hey Uncle Nico!" Teddy chattered excitedly at the thin, dark haired, dark eyed man, "I'm here to meet my new cousin! Mommy and Daddy say her name's Brianna. I hope she's nice. We're gonna be the best of friends, and we'll play together all the time. I hope she's nice. And cool. And likes the color yellow, 'cause I like yellow. It's my favorite color. Or maybe green is, I'm not sure. They're both awesome. Which do you think is better, green or yellow? You know, blue's pretty cool, too-"

"Whoa," Nico smiled at his nephew, "Slow down, Theodore. Brianna's right in here, let me take you to her."

Teddy promptly stopped babbling, "Okay."

Nico led his half-sister and her family into their living room, a simple space with a couch, a few chairs, a coffee table and a TV. Nico and Teddy's parents started talking in the corner of the room, along with Teddy's other uncle, Uncle Will, while Teddy examined his new cousin.

She was standing in the middle of the room, looking around at the walls. She started a little when she noticed Teddy's presence, and stopped to examine his Asian features and gold eyes, much like he was examining her. Her skin was a pasty white color, which had come from not seeing much of the sun in months, and her hair was golden blonde and pulled up into a neat ponytail. Her eyes were blue, and kept flickering nervously towards Teddy's Uncle Will. She had on denim shorts and a blue t-shirt with a smiling sun, and a band-aid was taped to her left hand. She had tiny freckles across her nose, and there was this big white line dragging across her forehead. He stared, but then remembered his daddy said it was rude to do so, so he stopped.

"Hi," he greeted, holding out his hand after a few moments, like he'd seen grown-ups do when they said hi to each other, "I'm Teddy."

"Hello," she replied, staring blankly at his hand, "I'm Brianna. I think."

"How do you not know your own name?" Teddy asked, wrinkling his nose and letting his hand sink back to his side.

She shrugged, her face still somewhat blank, "Dunno. I woke up in a hos-pit-all about a week ago, and I don't remember anything before then. Then, Doctor di-Ang-el-o-Sol-ace brought me here a day ago."

Teddy's mouth was flopping like a fish, "You don't remember anything?"

She shook her head sadly.

"You don't even know your favorite color, do you?" he asked, and once again, she shook her head. Teddy gestured vaguely at her torso, "Well, mine's yellow. Like the sun on your shirt."

She glanced down at it, "It's nice."

The boy nodded enthusiastically, causing his dark hair to go flying in all directions as it flew around in a shaggy mop, "I think so. Though green is nice, too. And I really like blue, too…"

He trailed off, furrowing his brow as Brianna's face started to twist in pain, causing him to ask tentatively, "Are you okay?"

She grimaced, her lower lip quivering, but nodded slowly, as if the movement hurt her.

"Are you sure?" Teddy asked, his eyes wide as he took in his cousin. She'd sunken to the floor, and her eyes were crammed shut as she held her hands over her ears. She was swaying back and forth slightly where she sat, and didn't respond to his question.

Teddy would readily admit, he was a little freaked out, and if his uncles hadn't noticed and come running over, he would've gone running to his parents. They knelt down next to Brianna, and for once, Teddy's Uncle Will wasn't smiling and cracking corny jokes. Rather, his blue eyes took on a hard light, and his face was grim with seriousness. He reached out a tan arm to steady his new daughter, and started whispering softly in a soothing tone. He made a gesture towards his husband, who understood, and scooped up Brianna, carrying her upstairs while the blonde man continued to whisper soothingly in her ear.

The Zhang family watched the ordeal in solemn silence until the couple returned a few moments later without their daughter.

The adults started a harried conversation, and Teddy kept trying to weave around their legs so he could be part of the conversation.

"She's prone to migraines due to the severe trauma she took to her head during the car accident," Teddy's Uncle Will was explaining solemnly, "They've been happening every day or two, and when they occur, she's unable to properly function. Unlike the amnesia, we believe that her migraines will progressively get better as she ages. In the meantime, though, they cause her severe pain. We took her to her bed and gave her a medication to help her with the migraine, and a medication to help her sleep. Hopefully when she wakes up it'll have passed."

Teddy stopped fidgeting to get through the ring of legs and stared at his uncle in blank confusion, "What?"

His uncle froze, that flashed him an uneasy grin, "It just means that since she lost her memory, her head'll hurt her sometimes."

"Oh," Teddy responded eloquently, "But she'll be okay, right?"

His uncle responded with the same uneasy grin, but he sounded pretty certain, "Of course. But if it ever happens again, you need to come find us so we can help her, alright?"

The golden eyed boy nodded, and, seemingly satisfied, the adults went back to talking in brusque, concerned tones, which Teddy promptly tuned out. Making sure the adults were immersed in what was likely an important conversation, Teddy snuck up the stairs and wandered into what used to be the guest bedroom, but was now decorated in bright colors, a meadow wallpaper and furniture, including a bed with a pink Disney princess spread. Tucked soundly under the covers, Teddy's new cousin was sleeping peacefully. His uncles must have taken her ponytail out, because her hair was spread around her head, vaguely reminding him of a halo. She looked happier asleep than he'd seen her awake, as a soft smile graced her features. He wondered if she was dreaming about her family, the one she couldn't remember. The notion made him sad for her, since she had to start all over with nothing, but her was her family now, and he wanted to see her smile like that when she was awake. But more importantly, he wanted to be what he thought she needed more.

He wanted to be her friend.

**If you guys feel helpful, review with a number between 23 and 65. If not, I'll go use a number randomizer. Anyways, thanks for reading!**


	52. Graduation

**Okay, so, I've discovered for about the thousandth time that I'm really bad at sticking to an update schedule, and I'm sorry. My softball team's giving us the week off, and as a result I have a lot of time on my hands. Thus, to make it up to you guys, I want to get out a bunch of chapters this week, alright? But if I'm going to pump out a ton of chapters, you all have to contribute too. Mostly with ideas. The reason I didn't update for like two weeks was because I hit a wall of writers' block for this story. So I want to make it up to you, but I'd love it if you could suggest ideas for one-shots.**

**Also, consider yourselves lucky. I wasn't ever planning to actually write this chapter for you to read. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Friday, June 16th, 25 years after defeating Gaea_

"You may be one of the earlier graduating classes in the history of New Athens Academy, but it's already clear that you'll be one of the greatest. I wish you all the best of luck. You are all graduated."

There was a collective cheer from the collective demigods and legacies as the sky above Rose's head swelled with a hundred blue and white hats, tassels flying. She noted proudly that hers was particularly obvious since she modified it to use it's tassel like a propeller and shoot off mini fireworks. It's not like she could get in trouble for it-she's not a student anymore. She smirked.

Shaking her head slightly to clear her mind, which was bouncing around with thousands of conflicting thoughts, she decided to focus on the moment. As a result, she immediately took off the shoes her mother insisted she wear and crammed them into a hidden pocket in her white gown, since they were some sort of strappy white sandals with heels. Apparently old, partially burnt sneakers don't qualify as "nice", much to Rose's distain.

All of this took no more than a few seconds, and Rose started searching the crowd for her best friends. It didn't take long for her to lock onto Jacob's sea green gaze, and he directed a goofy grin before being swallowed up by the herd of people milling around. Parents and family were streaming onto the athletic fields, tripling the amount of people there. Much to her agitation, Rose continuously kept getting jostled as people bumped into her, half of which she was pretty sure hadn't showered. She may have accidentally singed a few of them.

She began navigating her way through the crowd of proud parents and ecstatic graduates towards where she thought Aiden may be, only to have someone run into her from the side.

"Would everyone cut that out, already?" she grumbled to herself, not paying particular heed to the disruptive person.

"Rose!" the person called, and she turned, realizing with a tinge of embarrassment that it had been the person she was looking for in the first place.

"Hey Thor," she greeted with a grin, swiping a few black locks out of her face, which had fallen out of the elaborate whatever-it-was her mother had done with her hair.

"You look nice," the blonde teen said with a shy smile, taking a step towards Rose as her ADHD demanded she fiddle with the hem of the white dress she was required to wear. The whole outfit vaguely made her want to throw up, but hey, at least she wouldn't have to worry about high school giving her the same feeling anymore.

On some level, the comment took Rose off guard, but she glanced at him and noted that he was, in fact, wearing dress pants and a blue tie with little thunder bolts on it, along with a pair of loafers, "You too, I guess. Personally, I prefer pretty much anything but these gods-forsaken clothes."

The legacy of Jupiter smirked at her, a knowing look in his polychromatic eyes as they moved closer together and towards the edge of the sea of people. She grabbed his arm as she led them, pulling him along so as to prevent the rolling mass of people from separating them. Distractedly, she glanced up, noting smugly that her hat was the only one still airborne, and that it was still shooting colorful bursts into the air above it.

She and Aiden stopped walking now that they were semi-separated from the crowd of people, and they surged together as though choreographed. The din that had been constant for the past few mintues faded away until all she was aware of was Aiden's lips on hers, soft and sweet and passionate and, oddly enough, tasting crisp like a cool breeze. Rose quickly got over her initial shock, embracing the kiss she hadn't even known he'd wanted. Or known she'd wanted. And yet, it wasn't bad. In fact, it felt good. Right. She knew Aiden like the back of her hand, and though she hadn't imagined their friendship ever taking a romantic turn, she decided it wasn't bad. Maybe even she'd wanted it and hadn't known.

The general consensus of Rose's thoughts was _Bleidunjhxvnugvbesjxhdcngjb_, which was fine by her. She was happy to simply enjoy the moment while it lasted. Just her and her best friend together, kissing at the edge of the football field on their graduation day. That was, until something had to come mess it up. Or someone.

Startling both of them, there was suddenly an outburst of sarcastic applause as Jacob yelled, "Finally!"

While the black haired teen eagerly muttered something about his Uncle Grover owing him $20, Rose's skin flared with fire as a self-defense response. Immediately, Aiden jumped backwards and started swearing in Greek at the burning feeling in his hands and face. Rapidly, Rose became aware that her parents, Aiden's parents and Jacob's parents were standing in a loose semi-circle behind Jacob, and her face flushed involuntarily. Thankfully, her Latina heritage hid it fairly well.

"_¡Oye! ¡Idiota! ¿Por qué has hecho eso?"_ Rose complained towards Jacob, causing her parents and siblings to smirk.

Rather than respond to the Spanish she knew he understood, Jacob elected to smirk at her infuriatingly as he unbuttoned his dress shirt underneath his gown to reveal the accursed Roden shirt he loved to tease her and Aiden with. Rose took a deep breath and let it out through her gritted teeth, knowing that there was no way in Hades she was _ever_ going to live this down.

**I had some help from Google Translate with the Spanish, but it's supposed to say, "Hey! You Idiot! Why'd you do that?"**


	53. Sea Turtles

**Whee! A regular update for you peeps! I've had this chapter in the works for awhile, so I hope you all enjoy. Thank you to those that reviewed with suggestions when I asked last chapter, hopefully those'l help me with the whole "consistent updates" concept. You all have rights to annoy me if I fail at that prior to the end of the summer. I don't really have much else to say, so enjoy the random loggerhead sea turtle trivia. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome, everyone!**

**-ROC6**

_Tuesday, March 14th, 19 years after defeating Gaea_

The siblings stared calmly at each other, a slight glare tinting their eyes. The older sibling, a green-eyed, fourteen-year-old girl with her blonde hair thrown up in a messy ponytail, crossed her arms smugly.

"Loggerhead sea turtles are the most populous sea creatures found in America's marine territory, nesting in beaches from New Jersey to Texas," she said evenly.

Her brother, a raven colored, messy haired boy, pouted momentarily, then regained his stoic expression. He folded his hands innocently in front of him, "Loggerhead sea turtles are the breed of sea turtle most commonly found in the Mediterranean, being that they nest anywhere from beaches in countries such as Greece and Turkey to beaches in countries such as Israel and Libya."

The two siblings were standing in the middle of the family room, in front of the worn, wooden old coffee table. Their parents were watching with amused grins from the blue couches nearby as the pair exchanged random information about their chosen sea creature.

The blonde, Emmy, looked vaguely impressed, but made no move to comment. After a moment, she stated, "Sea turtles, loggerheads included, are part of a reptile group that has existed and been alive for the last 100 million years."

Jacob, the green eyed boy, grinned cheshirely, momentarily confusing his sister at how prepared he seemed when he was flustered mere moments ago, "Loggerhead sea turtles are reddish brown in color, averaging three feet in length and weighing roughly three-hundred pounds."

The raven haired man that was their father leaned over slightly towards his blonde wife, whom he was casually lounging next to, "It's been thirty-seven minutes, how much longer can they do this?"

An amused huff of breath escaped the gray eyed woman's lips, "I have no idea, Percy. Remember how they went fifty-seven minutes last time?"

The man sharing the same green eyes as his children laughed softly while they continued exchanging facts, "I didn't know someone could memorize that many facts about megalodons."

The dark haired tween, Jacob, stomped his foot at something his sister said, before spouting a fact right back at her.

"Certainly you couldn't, Seaweed Brain," his wife teased, a playful glint in her gunmetal gaze.

"Hey!" he whisper shouted indignantly, pouting childishly and crossing his arms before conceding at his wife's raised eyebrow, "That's probably true."

By now, the fact exchange occurring between the two siblings was growing rapidly more heated than it previously had been.

The young teenager, Emmy, was standing with her weight mostly shifted on one hip as she crossed her arms and stared at her brother, analyzing his facial expressions, and drumming her ADHD fingers on her arm, "Loggerhead sea turtles received their name as a result of their large head, evolved so they could support powerful jaw muscles so as to crush prey with hard shells such as clams and sea urchins."

Her black haired brother was shifting his weight back and forth from foot to foot, his fingers skidding all over his clothes and fiddling with loose threads and hems due to the combination of his heated exchange with his sister and ADHD, "Mostly, loggerhead sea turtles nest north of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, with 90% of their nests occurring along the Floridian coast."

Growing bored again with his children's… whatever it was they were doing, Percy whispered once more to his wife, "I think they got this from your side of the family."

She snorted, "Obviously, though the choice of topic is most definitely from yours."

Her husband nodded sagely, "I think you're right, Annabeth."

Annabeth rolled her gray eyes and swatted his arm lightly, leading him to make his famed 'baby seal' face at her as he rubbed the spot where she hit him.

Having long grown immune to the expression, his wife simply rolled her eyes again, though she was somewhat smiling, "Oh, suck it up, Seaweed Brain. I didn't hit you that hard."

The two siblings were still completely oblivious to anything their parents were doing as Jacob took his turn in the conversation, visibly having difficulty producing another fact, "Uh, let's see… I gotta know something else- oh! On some nesting beaches, raccoons pose a serious threat, destroying more than 95% of nests."

Emmy's expression had morphed from an expression of serious concentration to a slightly smug, victorious expression, "An individual loggerhead sea turtle may nest up to seven times in a single season."

Her little brother scowled at her, jutting his chin out as he crossed his arms, pausing to think for a few moments, then shake his head before sulking out of the room.

Smiling softly, Emmy took the few steps over to the sofa, where she reached into the bowl of popcorn her parents had been sharing, before grabbing a handful and turning on her heel to exit the room, happy that she had asserted herself as the more intelligent sibling.

With that, the room was empty of the children, leaving only Percy and Annabeth, sitting together on the couch.

"So," the green eyed man begin, "Think they'll do that again tomorrow?"

"Most definitely," his wife responded.

"Still want to watch Jaws?"

The blonde woman shrugged, "Why not?"

**For those that care, I have written a follow up to Sorry (the chapter where Emmy and Ace fought), but I won't post it until I get a request to do so from at least 10 different people. :D**


	54. That's So (Not) Cool

**Behold, an update. I'm gonna try not to bore you peeps with a really long author's note, but I would like to acknowledge that this was partially for _awesomepi_, who requested more of Ember. I am in the mood to do requests right now, if any of you have something you want to see. ...And I think I've about summed everything up, now, so I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Tuesday, October 12th, 23 years after defeating Gaea_

Ember turned away, turning to face her locker rather than the girls that chose her to be their punching bag today. Again. She took a deep breath, counted to ten, then let it out through her nose, all the while rifling through her locker for her lunch and her math textbook. Another knife of pain slashed through her at their words, but she continued to turn her cheek, not acknowledging them. After all, that's what she'd always been told to do, and more often than not, it's what she'd always done. That didn't mean she didn't hear what the other girls were saying, didn't mean it didn't hurt her.

"I can't believe you're wearing that," one of the girls, whom she could recognize by voice as Maria, daughter of Aphrodite, said snootily. It was sad, really, that Ember was so used to this that she could recognize the girls by voice, but there was nothing she could do about it. Not here, not now, not without risking a suspension, and gods know her sister Rose got into enough trouble as is. Her parents didn't need to worry about her.

"It's not like it could ever survive a monsters attack," a daughter of Athena, Lucy, commented coolly, "The material is poorly manufactured."

Ember resisted the urge to correct her. No, it wasn't made by some large company, but it was reinforced with the magic she'd learned from her mother and the magic invested in her loom. It was likely stronger than the mass produced clothes that her bullies wore.

Another girl weighed in, now, a daughter of Ares named Claire, "Let's just cut the crap and be honest; it's as ugly as Hephaestus, and so is she, even when she _isn't_ wearing it. Oh wait, guess I forgot, Hephaestus is her grandfather."

Maria blinked, then smirked, something that looked a little too natural on her doll-like features, "That explains so much-like why she's so ugly, even when she isn't wearing hand made atrocities."

Ember closed her locker, forcing her to face her attackers head on, and before she could quell it some of the fire she inherited came spilling out, "At least I don't look like a deformed Barbie doll."

Maria scowled, then smiled again, a cruel glint in her eyes, "You're right, you don't. You look like a cyclops and a hellhound had a baby, then threw it off of the Eiffel Tower, before packing it into a tiny box and having it shipped to America."

See, the thing about mean girls that also happen to be demigods, is that they have a thicker skin. They _will_ get in a fight with you, they can take the insults and they are guaranteed to push back harder. So Ember knew that if this continued to escalate, then it wouldn't end well for anyone.

The cinnamon haired girl was just plotting her next course of action when a relievingly familiar voice broke up the semicircle of girls surrounding Ember, "Leave her alone, _Maree-ree_. I still have that pic from Christmas saved on my phone from when you felt bloated after binging on an entire batch of cookies."

A bright red hue crept swiftly up Maria's neck until it covered her entire face, and without another word, she (literally) turned heel and stomped down the hall to her class. Her friends glanced at Ember and her ally for a moment longer, then followed Maria down the hall.

"Thanks, Ava," Ember commented gruffly, turning to head to class.

"No problem," the blonde teen responded, "Blackmail is one of the few benefits of having to share a cabin with her."

Ember grinned, "Nice. There's something, at least."

"Yeah, well," Ava moaned, "She's vying for counselor right now, and I _really_ hope that Kate doesn't hand it over to her to get her to shut up."

Wrinkling her nose, Ember nodded in agreement, still dwelling on the painful comments the other girls had been making. Ember wasn't wearing anything special, really, just whatever she'd grabbed out of the drawer that morning; a pair of worn, dark blue leggings and a white t-shirt she made herself that was too long to really be a t-shirt but too short to be a dress.

What bothers the almond eyed girl most, though, is that she doesn't know what changed to make the other girls so rude to her. She remembers show-and-tells in elementary school when she'd bring in an article of clothing she made to show her teachers and classmates, and they were always so supportive and interested.

"_Whoa, I wish I could make that!"_

"_Awesome!"_

"_That's so cool!"_

Ember remembers grinning broadly at the compliments, but now all she ever hears about the fact that she likes to make her own clothes is that _wow,_ that is so _not _cool. She doesn't care, or at least doesn't want to, since she still wears the clothes she makes, after all, but it gets a little tiresome to always hear her peers going on about her clothing choice, among other things. Sometimes she just… She doesn't know, really. Sometimes she just wants things to be different.

"I just wish…" Ember says softly to her friend.

"I know," Ava nods, a sad look in her vibrant blue eyes, "Me too, Ember, me too."


	55. Never Be

**Lookie! An update! Moving on, this one-shot has actually been in the works since the beginning of this story. I know I said I was in the mood for requests-still am, actually-but every time I tried to write one I would get a few hundred words in, only to be completely stuck as to how to finish it, so those are still in the works. I have a couple of your requests started as of right now, so you guys can be happy about that, and I'm hoping to finish them soon. Also, we're closing in on 200 reviews, which is totally awesome. That's about all I have to say, so, yeah. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Tuesday, August 3rd, 20 years after defeating Gaea_

The sun was harsh, but it's heat was combated by the cool water of the ocean. The surface of the water was sparkling in the glaring light, and the waves were surprisingly gentle. Jacob was happily playing in the surf, even if it was just him and his mom that day. He created tiny whirlpools, then, growing bored, starting making blobs of water float in the air, which he then used to create tiny hurricanes only about a foot wide.

His mother must have invited Aiden's mom over, he noticed, because the next time Jacob glanced towards shore, his mother was chatting with the Cherokee daughter of Aphrodite. The legacy was about to disregard their conversation when he heard his name mentioned. So, he did the logical thing. He stopped to listen.

"-see how he was making those tiny storms? It's just like Percy used to, he thought it was the funniest thing," Jacob's mom was saying, chuckling softly and causing some of her golden curls to drift further out of her ponytail.

Jacob had stopped listening, though. Suddenly, he wasn't enjoying the ocean so much.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Thursday, August 12th, 20 years after defeating Gaea_

_Clank!_ The automaton's mechanical head fell to the ground loudly. Panting, Jacob only spared a moment to smile in triumph before moving on to the next automaton, just like he'd done the time before, and the time before that, and the time before that, just like he'd been doing for the past forty-five minutes. He was gasping for breath, his arms were starting to stop their flaming and feel like they were slowly being replaced by lead, and he was fairly certain his face was bright red, if the sweat dripping down it was anything to go by. Jacob's world was simple; stab, block, slash, repeat.

Then, suddenly, he heard voices approaching, which he recognized as his dad's cousin Nico, and Chiron. They were deep in conversation, and the legacy of Athena tuned them out until the son of Hades just _had_ to say it.

"He's fantastic with that sword," the ebony haired Italian commented, glancing up from the conversation, "Just like Percy is."

Jacob grunted, and he was so distracted that he was barely able to get his sword up in time to block the next strike the automaton threw his way. The green eyed teen slashed viciously at the automaton's head, sending it flying, before storming out of the arena, practically stabbing his sword into its sheath.

He was _not_ Percy.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Saturday, August 14th, 20 years after defeating Gaea_

"Come on, Jacob!" Rose called, since it was a Valdez-Jackson bonding night, according to their parents, "They're turning on that movie with the dinosaurs!"

The black haired legacy of Poseidon practically threw his textbook across the room as he charged down the stairs. About three from the bottom, Jacob did the most graceful thing he could have; he tripped.

"Classic," Rose's Papi chuckled from the couch, "Just like Percy."

Said man let out an indignant shout, "Hey!"

Jacob scowled.

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Wednesday, August 18th, 20 years after defeating Gaea_

Aiden's dad was walking through their living room while Jacob was hanging out with him, just cracking his new joke to his friend.

"You know," the son of Jupiter said, hesitating, "Your sense of humor-"

"Is just like Percy's," the green eyed teen finished lamely.

The blonde man cracked a smile, "I bet you get that a lot."

"You have no idea, Mr. Grace."

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Friday, August 27th, 20 years after defeating Gaea_

Each student was required to ask the teacher's permission to do the topic they chose, and when it was Jacob's turn, he asked Mr. Sardansky if he could research turtles.

The gray eyed man smiled kindly, "Your father would've chosen the same thing. Of course you can."

"Actually," the green eyed legacy said, a stony expression on his face, "I changed my mind. Could I research the Peregrine Falcon?"

The blonde man seemed slightly taken aback by Jacob's sudden change of heart, but he nodded anyway, "Of course."

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Sunday, September 5th, 20 years after defeating Gaea_

"Jacob, Emmy, it's so nice to see you," Grandma greeted, hugging both of them tightly, "You've both grown so much."

Jacob's dad grinned sheepishly, "Sorry for not bringing them around much, Mom, we've been a little busy. There was this herd of hippocampi that managed to all get stuck in a single fishing net, and I had to help them stay calm until we could release them, and Annabeth has been working on designing a skyscraper for-"

Grandma Sally smiled and shook her head, "It's fine, don't worry about it. I just baked some cookies, if you guys want to follow me to the kitchen."

Immediately, Jacob, Emmy and their dad took off across the apartment, racing to the cookies as quick as their legs could carry them. Jacob's mom stayed back like a civilized person and walked with his grandmother. When the pair arrived at the cramped little kitchen, they shook their heads and the three, but were smiling none the less. Everyone took a seat around the table, along with Grandpa Paul, and Jacob's grandmother examined him and his sister for a moment.

"You know, Jacob," his grandmother commented, swiping a fw gray locks out of her face, "You grow more handsome every time I see you, and you look just like your father did at your age."

Jacob's mom hummed her agreement, and his father examined him with interest, like _Really? I looked like that?_

He gave his grandmother a smile he hoped didn't look as strained as it felt, "Thanks, Grandma."

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Friday, September 10th, 20 years after defeating Gaea_

Jacob slammed his head into his pillow. He exhaled heavily into the soft blue fabric. He lifted his head. He took a deep breath. He slammed his head into the pillow. He exhaled heavily. He lifted his head. He repeated.

Finally, Jacob decided this was getting him nowhere, but _gods_, he was tired of being compared to Percy. All he had to do was breathe, and there would be someone there to tell him he breathed just like his father.

Jacob flipped himself over on his bed, a motion that looked vaguely like a fish flopping around on land. He was just so tired of constantly being compared to his dad.

So, okay, maybe Jacob looked just like his father, except with some slight differences he got from his mother, like more arching eyebrows and the slight curl in his hair when it started getting too long. Maybe Jacob was clumsy, something people poked fun at his father for. Maybe Jacob liked the ocean, since he was a descendant of Poseidon, like his father. Maybe Jacob even had similar interests to his father. Maybe his sense of humor was similar to that of the man that helped raise him. Maybe he showed talent with a sword (which he thought didn't automatically make him like his father). But Jacob was not his father.

Jacob got straight "A"s in school. He fought through his dyslexia and ADHD and managed to excel in school, something his father had never really done. He was a good student. But it wasn't like his grades mattered, since his sister always scored higher. He was automatically oblivious, unable to focus and not exactly book smart, like his father, in the eyes of everyone around him. Never mind that his grandmother was Athena.

After a few years of effort, he managed to become decent enough with a bow that he usually is the target, and even got a few bullseyes from time to time, something he never let his sister hear the end of. He knew for a fact that his father was so bad with a bow that he wasn't even allowed to touch one, let alone shoot one.

Jacob could go on. He liked to read about space and wear t-shirts to bed and challenge himself when he was alone on Sundays to only eat foods that end with an "O". He hasn't fallen in love with his best friend, he never killed a monster outside of camp, he never got himself expelled from a school. Jacob had never gone on any quests or saved the world or proved he had it in him to be anything more than the son of someone great. Jacob wasn't brave and he never did anything heroic and he knew that he would never for the life of him ever be able to do even five percent of the things his father had done.

Because Jacob _wasn't_ his father.

He wasn't good, like his father. He wasn't brave, like his father. He wasn't heroic, like his father. He couldn't motivate people like his father. He wasn't his father. He could never be as good as his father, the man who saved the world, the man who everyone told he was just like, and thought he should be just like. Jacob tried, yes, he tried so, so hard. But he wasn't as strong as his father. He wasn't as courageous as his father. He wasn't his father. And he would never be his father.

In the end, Jacob's father was a great man. And despite all his efforts, Jacob was pretty sure he'd never be a great man like his father.


	56. Responsibly

**Behold the mighty chapter! This one's really just fluff, but everyone can do with some fluff every now and then, am I right? By the way, for those that care, five more votes until the sequel to Emmy and Ace's fight is up. I don't have too much to say today, so thank you guys for the awesome support, I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Thursday, March 6th, 13 years after defeating Gaea_

"Mommy?" a tiny voice called, and the Cherokee woman turned around, melting at the sight of her young son.

"Yes, Aiden?" she asked gently, putting down the tablet she'd been using.

"Can you-" the six year old hesitated, clenching and unclenching his tiny fists, "Can you teach me how to hone my charmspeak?"

"Of course," the woman, Piper, responded.

Her blonde son cheered, clamoring up onto the couch next to his mother.

"Before I start, though," Piper said, waggling a finger in her son's face, who went cross eyed looking at it, "You have to promise me that you'll charmspeak responsibly."

Aiden stopped snuggling into her side and stared at her with his big, kaleidoscopic eyes, "Reponibly?"

A chime-like laugh escaped Piper as she corrected him, "_Responsibly_, not reponibly. It means that you'll use it like a big boy and won't be mean to other people with it, like by making them do things that they don't want to do. I need you to promise me if I start to teach you how to use your charmspeak better that you'll use it responsibly. Kapeesh?"

"Kapeesh," her son responded solemnly.

"Good," the dark-haired woman stared into her son's polychromatic eyes, identical to her own, "Lesson one, charmspeak works best if you make a person think that they're doing something they want to do. They're less likely to listen, otherwise."

Her son's eyes were locked onto her own in fascination, "Like, if, for example, you were trying to get me to make cookies, and I told you no. If you made me think that I wanted to make the cookies, rather than just commanding me to make the cookies, then I'd be more likely to actually listen to you."  
Ruffling her son's hair, Piper commented, "Okay, that's enough for today. How about you come help Mommy make lunch?"

Aiden's face lit up, "Okay. I learn more tomorrow?"

His mother smiled warmly, "Of course. But right now, how do you feel about PB &amp; J?"

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

_Wednesday, March 12th, 13 years after defeating Gaea_

Aiden had been receiving lessons from his mom every day for about the past week or so. He'd steeled his nerves and decided that today, he was going to put his charmspeak to the test. Aiden's parents were in the kitchen attempting to cook dinner, though neither of them could cook well, so it was always an adventure. Tonight was _supposed_ to be mac n' cheese and chicken nuggets, to Aiden's delight.

Regardless, his parents' escapades in cooking left Aiden and his sister in the TV room to work things out on their own, which didn't usually end well for Aiden.

Tonight, he and his twin were having a crisis since he wanted to watch The Little Minotaur, but his sister wanted to watch Hippocampi Island.

"We always watch what you want to watch!" the blonde haired six year old lamented to his sister, waving the remote in his hand as he tried to hold it out of her reach with his extra inch of height, "I wanna watch The Little Minotaur!"

"But Aidy!" Belle complained right back, "The Little Minotaur is stupid, I wanna watch Hippocampi Island! Sparkle Fin is supposed to be having her birthday party this episode!"

Still attempting to hold the remote out of Belle's reach, Aiden fired at his dark haired sister, "Well Manny Minotaur is supposed to stand up to Chad Chimera today!"

"Pft," his sister replied, "That's just stupid."

"Well," Belle's twin commented logically in reply, "Why do hippocampi need an island, they're fish! _That's_ stupid."

Seemingly growing tired of arguing, Belle stopped trying to grab the remote out of her brother's hand and opted for poking him in the stomach instead.

"_Ow!_" he complained, hunched over, "You shocked me! That's _cheating_!"

Ignoring the mention of the horrible c-word, Belle stuck her tongue out at her blond brother, and turned the TV on, flipping Hippocampi Island just as the colorful intro came on the screen and started playing cheery music. She flopped heavily on the couch, propping her feet up on the coffee table just as her mother had done countless times and sitting on the remote so her brother couldn't get to it to change the channel.

"Give me the remote," he demanded, standing in front of the TV pouting and with his arms crossed.

"Nope," Belle popped the 'p'.

"Give me. The remote," Aiden demanded once more, glaring at his blue eyed sister, and growling the words out the best a six year old could.

"Nu-uh," Belle replied, craning her neck to see around her brother, "Could you move, 'cause I-Hey! Magic Scale's giving Sparkle Fin her present!"

"Give me-," Aiden started, then, realizing he wasn't doing it right, he tried again, channeling his week's worth of lessons into his voice, "_Give me the remote._"

Belle's eyes glazed over, losing some of their spark for a moment as she stood up and handed him the remote, before sitting back down.

Grinning triumphantly, Aiden flipped the channel to The Little Minotaur, before flopping onto the overstuffed chair, sitting on the remote as his sister had.

"Wha-? Hey!" his sister shrieked, jumping to her feet, "That's not fair, that's-that's cheating! I didn't get to see what Sparkle Fin's presents were!"

Aiden stuck his tongue out at her. _How's that for reponib-er, responsibly?_


	57. Yesterday

**Lookie, peeps! A surprise double update! I hope you guys like this, though it won't happen often. Actually, I don't think I've ever double updated before, though I could be wrong. Before I get into the thick of this author's note, I need to say this before I forget; I don't own Disney. Alrighty, moving on.**

**A user by the name of StrangePeppermint requested Emmy flashing back on finding out she would have a brother as Jacob receives his diploma. Emmy wouldn't be old enough at the time to remember that, though, so I wrote this instead, which is her reflecting more generally on just growing up with Jacob. Hopefully you're okay with that.**

**And finally... I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Friday, June 16th, 25 years after defeating Gaea_

It was really starting to freak Emmy out-she sounded like an adult. Granted, she _was_ an adult, but still. She sounded like her parents. ('It feels like just yesterday you were throwing blue cheese balls at me on the Argo II…') But, and here comes the sad part, it was true. It really did feel like just yesterday that Jacob was sneaking into her bedroom to play with her collection of Harry Potter wands, or that they were sitting on the couch together seeing who could catch the most crackers in their mouth. Then again, the second one actually _was_ yesterday. Her point remained, though. Nothing would ever be the same.

Emmy watched as Jacob walked up to the stage, a dorky, nervous grin plastered across his face as he was likely praying to the gods that he didn't trip on his way up. His name had just been called and greeted with a generous amount of applause. The principal was standing onstage, holding a diploma that had _Jacob Jackson_ scrawled across it in fancy script. She could tell just by her brother's posture how excited he was, how long he'd been waiting for today to come. It just seems so strange to her to see him graduating high school, stranger than it seemed when she graduated, because gods, their childhoods really _were_ over.

She was an honest-to-gods grown up, now.

Emmy wasn't even two when Jacob was born, so she didn't remember when he was a tiny little baby with big green eyes and a poof of black hair on top of his head, though his baby pictures made him seem adorable, not that she'd ever admit it. She does remember all the times she complained because he was playing with her toys, or copying her, and while it seemed like the end of the world then, it makes her smile to look back on it now. Emmy does remember when her brother was still a clumsy, chubby little toddler, partially because Grandma Sally liked to spoil him with cookies. Actually, the blonde could clearly see the same toddler in her brother.

She could see it in his black hair, still a little longer than their mother would like it to be, the curls mellowed out as he grew older. She could see it in his goofy grin, and his bright green eyes, always full of laughter. She could see it in the way he stood, shy and confident at the same time. But yet, he'd also changed so much.

Emmy remembered when they were young, and he did everything she told him because she was his hero, his big sister. He'd long ago realized that she wasn't the hero he'd thought she was, but she still remembers the way he looked at her. His eyes were bright with adoration, and his lips were slightly parted in awe. She remembers taking his hands in her own, remembers that his used to be smaller than hers, bizarre as it seems looking back. She remembers that even as a little boy he was able to do the one thing no one else could; break through her pride.

She pulled her punches, and did her best to shield him from reality, just as her parents had done to her. He didn't need to know that many demigods looked down on legacies, didn't need to know that if he ever wanted to leave he'd be hunted by bloodthirsty monsters. It only hurt all the more when she saw the anguish in his eyes as the veils of childhood slowly faded and he came to see the world as it truly was; beautiful and full of edges.

On stage, Jacob reached out and shook the principal's hand, a grin splitting his face so far apart that Emmy wasn't sure they'd ever be able to put it back together. He was practically glowing with happiness, and it melted Emmy's heart to see her brother look so happy. He carefully took the diploma, as if afraid it may disappear.

Growing up, Emmy and Jacob didn't have the perfect relationship that virtually every sibling pair on TV seems to have. They fought, they bickered. But they made up, too, and they were reasonably close. Jacob didn't like Ace too much at first, thinking that the son of Apollo was going to steal his big sister away from him, but he got over it. After all, he spent as much time as he could with his friends Aiden Grace and Rose Valdez. Growing older, Jacob distinguished himself more as a person every day, with his goofy sense of humor and kind heart. He was always way better with people than Emmy was.

The green eyed woman chuckled at her brother, who fist pumped exiting the stage.

Like everyone, Jacob had had his moments where he was less than a model child, with his tendency to get in trouble and ability to break virtually everything with his incessant clumsiness. He'd had his moments, such as in his famed "Great Escape", where he was too impulsive, and he had his moments where he seeked to distinguish himself from his famous parents. But rather than grow bitter and restless like she'd let herself become, he accepted his lot in life, and simply lived it best he could.

Jacob walked off the stage, diploma firmly grasped in hand, looking around disbelievingly. Emmy could practically hear his thoughts, she knew him so well. He was wondering if this was real, and both afraid and excited for what his future would hold.

It felt like just yesterday that Emmy was eight and six year old Jacob had fallen asleep on the couch next to her, a ball of warmth pressing into her side, his soft black hair tickling his nose. He looked so peaceful, so happy, under a whale-themed blanket, pieces of popcorn still clenched in his tiny fists as a Disney movie cast a soft light over them. Emmy was half-asleep at that point, too, her eyes growing heavy in the dark room.

Jacob sat back down in his designated fold-up chair, gaze sweeping excitedly over the crowd. He looked in her general direction and gave a thumbs up, holding his diploma in his other hand in a manner that said _Look what I've got!_ Emmy smiled warmly, and waved, hoping he'd see her and smile.

She was proud of her brother, but it felt like just yesterday that they were kids, dreaming of the future that seemed so far away.


	58. Fine

**Remember that double update I gave you peeps? Yeah, that was because I was going away for Nationals with my softball team and didn't know how long we'd last, so I gave you all an extra chapter to compensate. Thus, this update was late. Hopefully you guys are okay with it. Um, let's see... Ah. So if you guys want to see the chapter that follows up the fight between Emmy and Ace, only four more people need to request it. Also, if anyone has anything they want to see involving Teddy (Hazel and Frank's son), let me know. I'm open to any suggestions, but I want to write him, despite being a little stuck for ideas.**

**Yeah. That's it. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Monday, November 12th, 23 years after defeating Gaea_

Everyone kept telling Rose that it'll be fine, it'll be okay, she's just a teenager, she's just exaggerating. But she knew, _she knew_, that deep down inside, she couldn't do this anymore. And yeah, maybe she wasn't thinking clearly, she was so unfathomably furious, but she didn't care. She wasn't sure where the anger came from, not sure where it would go, but she couldn't keep holding it down inside. Every day it grew hotter, burned brighter, simultaneously cooking her and freezing her and killing her from the inside.

Yeah, okay, she knew that maybe other people didn't have great lives, but she didn't need to deal with all the crap that she was feeling right now, all the fuel that was feeding her blazing anger (which she still has no idea where it came from). It's just- She was just so freaking tired of it all. So tired of trying to scrape good grades with ADHD and dyslexia, tired of her parents locking themselves away in the shop rather than sitting down and playing card games with her and her sisters, tired of the fact that their business took off, something she was happy about, sure, but it almost felt like her parents never had time for her anymore. Her mother still cooks her meals, her father still builds with her in the home forge, but it wasn't the same. She wanted family meals around the table, she wanted to watch TV with her dad and fantasize about new things they could build and invent. She wanted her family back.

She tried to cook the other night, and, well, to put it nicely, it didn't go well. When Ember asked, Rose was so scattered she had a hard time understanding the instructions on _seventh grade homework._ She was a tenth grader, for the gods sakes! Rose couldn't recall a time within the last month that she hung out with Aiden and Jacob outside of school. Oh, don't even get her started on school. She can deal with the other kids talking to her when her friends aren't around, that's not a problem. Show them a little fire, and _Wham!_ They're out of her hair. Besides, she already knows the things they'll say. After all, Aiden and Jacob are closer to each other than they'll ever be to her, she knows. It's not like she could ever have as many friends as her dad-she was willing to bet that once he came to camp he _never_ felt alone. But Rose, well, Rose was a fire-wielder, and there were still some superstitious campers. Rose was a legacy, and many regular demigods hated legacies. Or looked down on them. Whatever. As if she was somehow inferior to those idiots. Oh, yeah, and she took after her father's Latino heritage. Three strikes, she's out.

But that wasn't what was bothering Rose the most, no, not even close. She had just found out that Ember, her sweet, baby sister, not that she'd ever say that out loud, was being picked on mercilessly by her peers and that, oh yeah, it had been happening for over a year and she hadn't told anyone. How is she supposed to react to that? Ember climbed off the bus and walked home without saying a word, then locked herself in her bedroom and cried. Not loud sobs, mind you, but silent tears and hidden sniffles. Rose could easily recognize those, so she asked her sister what was bothering her, at which point Ember hugged her and asked if she was ugly. Honestly, Rose thought, a twelve year old girl being was told she was ugly by her classmates. Idiots. Then, of course, it wasn't like Hya had done anything to help. The ninth-grader had gotten home from school and locked herself in her room, most likely pouring over some fashion magazine. Rose kept a close eye on her. Even though Hya tried to bury herself in the life of a so-called "popular girl", Rose could still see that she was hurting. Maybe the others didn't, but Rose had always been close to Hya, well, until Ember grew old enough that Hya started getting jealous and pushing everyone away. Rose could still see the real Hya, though, buried deep, but she didn't know what Hya had convinced herself of, or what tipped her completely over the edge before she entered high school. Regardless, she kept a close eye on Hya.

But Rose was beginning to think maybe she needed to start keeping an eye on herself, as she looked in the mirror and saw the her sleepless eyes staring back at her. In a fit, due to the unchecked rage flowing through her, Rose grabbed her brush and aimed to throw it at the mirror, only just catching herself before the brush left her hand. Shaking, she lowered the brush, looking at her hand as if from an outside perspective, wondering what had possessed it to almost do such a thing. Then, her rage taking hold once more, Rose flew across her room, grabbing her backpack and the keys to the house before storming down the stairs as soft as she could, knowing that it was after midnight now and her sisters were sleeping and she really shouldn't be doing this because she has that essay due tomorrow that was worth a large chunk of her grade and the letters kept swimming and just couldn't focus and her parents were still doing stuff at the shop and couldn't help her and it was all so infuriating that she just felt like she was going to _explode_.

The Latina teen let herself into the forge and opened her supply closet, pulling out the paint, both spray and non-spray versions, she kept within and shoving them in her backpack with some brushes, pulling the zipper shut so hard that it almost broke. She left the house, securing it for the safety of her sisters, and started jogging to the high school. New Athens was relatively small, still, and even though she took the bus she could still make decent time on foot to her school.

Upon arrival, Rose tossed her bag onto the ground and pulled out all the supplies she'd gathered, setting up the small, high power lights she'd brought to illuminate the wall of the gym. It was a perfect spot, really, since the wall was large, with few windows, and it was right by where all the students got off the buses and entered the school come morning. Walking out to the groundskeeping shed, which she knew was always kept unlocked, despite school policy, and grabbed a ladder tall enough to boost her all the way to the top of the wall. Grabbing all of her various paints and such, Rose started at the top of the wall and worked her way down. From years of working in the forge with her dad, she'd grown pretty adept at using spray paint, and she loved to doodle in her spare, well, alright, she'll admit it, _class_ time. Gradually, the pictures she'd sometimes paint on her creations grew pretty complex, which left her with a dangerous amount of spray-paint and skill.

Rose worked throughout the deep night, and she knew her parents had likely discovered her absence, but she didn't care. She worked until it was maybe 4:30 in the morning, when she was exhausted, but triumphant, and for the first time in a long while she didn't feel angry anymore. After putting most of her supplies away, Rose stepped back and surveyed her work. Clogging up the vast majority of the wall were a combination of students and teachers made ambiguous enough to not be recognized, and characterized with various monster traits. Empousa fangs and hair, clawed and gnarled hands, slitted eyes and scales. All of it was encased in a mirror, and down in the bottom right corner there was a girl with wide, scared eyes, maybe Ember's size, staring into it. The girl also bore an uncanny, but unintentional, resemblance to Rose's youngest sister. Staring back at the girl, in front of all the monsters, was a smaller, weaker, version of the girl, looking back with equally sad eyes. The whole thing was captioned _What do you see?_

Rose nodded to herself, before doing the one thing she knew a troublemaker should never do. She signed her work, knowing full well the consequences it may have. Then, without a backwards glance, Rose trudged home.

Upon her arrival, she discovered her parents camped out in the living room, waiting for her to return. When they saw her, they both shot to her feet, what she was sure was a lecture on the tips of their tongue, but she cut them off before they could speak.

Sweeping a lock of dark hair behind her ear, she stared at both of them for a moment, before tiredly saying, "I'm sorry."

Then she left her confused parents in the living room, watching her as she climbed up the stairs to her bedroom to proofread her essay and maybe get an hour of sleep. If she was lucky. Maybe now her parents would finally know that things _weren't_ fine.


	59. Lei Gong

**Getting this out of the way; I don't own Mickey Mouse or Chinese mythology.**

**So here's a ut e little one-shot about Teddy Zhang that I hope you all enjoy. I was inspired by my dog, who was terrified by some thunder awhile back, and I figured since many kids are afraid of thunder when they're little and thunderstorms aren't common in California, then this would be cute to write. It also provides some nice father-son bonding time between Frank and Teddy, which I decided we didn't have enough of. Also, my knowledge of Lei Gong and Chinese mythology comes from the internet, which isn't always reliable, so please correct any mistakes I made, and remember this is watered down for a five year old.**

**Also, a lot of new readers have been asking me about the order of chapters, so I'm just going to reiterate. The chapters are in no particular, chronological order, but they are dated so you can keep them straight. Um, yeah. Also, if you want the sequel to Emmy and Ace's fight, let me know. Kapeesh?**

**I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Tuesday, May 4th, 11 years after defeating Gaea_

Another loud crash rolled to Teddy's ears, and he whimpered, clutching his blanket closer to his chest. He hugged Theo, his teddy bear, holding him close and started praying to his grandfathers that it would be over soon. The sky was silent for a while, and Teddy allowed his tense muscles to relax, figuring to himself that it had to be over. After all, he didn't think a storm could _possibly_ go on any longer.

Suddenly, there was a streak of brightness, and the golden eyed boy clamped his eyes shut, curling up in anticipation of the roar that arrived a few seconds later. He opened his eyes and blinked slowly once the thunder had passed, then felt his muscles tense and the nerves along his spine start to tingle like there were tiny insects crawling up his back. He couldn't see. Why couldn't he see?

Teddy set his teddy bear gently down into his lap, and rubbed his eyes frantically. When everything in his room still remained dark, he tried waving his hand in front of his face. To his relief, his eyes could just barely detect the movement, and when he turned towards his window, he could slightly see his surroundings. Relieved, the black haired boy continued to blink as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, then climbed out of the nest of blankets he'd made for himself and off his bed.

Still clutching Theo the teddy bear in one hand, he walked over to his nightlight, wondering why the cheery little model of Mickey Mouse wasn't shedding soft yellow light across the room anymore. He flipped the switch. Nothing happened. He flipped the switch again. Still, nothing happened. Teddy was confused. Why wouldn't his nightlight turn on?

Carefully, Teddy started padding softly down the hallway outside of his room, careful not to trip on anything as he navigated his way through the dark house. There were a few thunderclaps during his travels, but he pressed on bravely. It wasn't long, though still longer than it would've been with lights, until Teddy was outside his parents' bedroom. He nudged the door open a crack, pressing one golden eye against the opening. To his surprise, he saw that his father was sitting up in bed, reading a book by the light of a flashlight.

"Hold on, a moment, Teddy," his father whisper-spoke across the room, as he turned off the flashlight and dogeared his page before setting his book on the nightstand by his bed.

Teddy watched, wide-eyed, as his father made his way softly across the room, jumping a little at the lightning that lit the rain pouring outside and the ensuing thunderclap. Backing up from the door as his father approached, Teddy watched as the muscular Asian man carefully and quietly latched the door behind him.

Flicking the flashlight he'd just been reading with on with a click, Teddy's dad led them both down the stairs and into the room where Teddy usually watched TV, at which point he set down the flashlight, leaving it turned on, and sat on the couch, patting the spot next to him for Teddy, who complied easily as he jumped onto the padded seat.

Another thunderclap sounded, and Teddy flinched, pressing himself against his father's side as he shrank away from the noise, holding his teddy bear like a lifeline.

"Daddy," he said softly, surveying the room with a nervous gaze, "My nightlight went out."

Teddy's dad wrapped an arm around his son, helping Teddy to relax his tightly clenched muscles a little, "Don't worry, mine did, too."

"But," Teddy's face scrunched in concentration, little wrinkles appearing in his nose as he thought, "Why?"

"The storm must have blown over one of the power lines," Teddy's dad explained gently.

There was another clap of thunder that sent Teddy burrowing into his father's side, one arm holding his bear in a life grip and the other wrapped desperately around his dad's chest.

"I know it's loud," Teddy's father, Frank, comforted, "But it's nothing to be scared of, honest."

Teddy gave him a doubtful look, his lips sealed shut in fear.

Thinking for a moment, Teddy's dad queried, "Did I ever tell you the myth of Lei Gong?"

His son shook his head curiously, his fear temporarily forgotten.

"Well, Lei Gong was known as the Lord of Thunder in Chinese, Taoist mythology. He, at the commands of the heavens, chased bad guys that committed crimes and evil spirits that used their brains to harm humans. He would ride down in a chariot pulled by a young boy and beat a drum to produce thunder, taking the bad people down with a chisel."

Teddy was listening with rapt attention, his glowing, golden gaze locked onto his father's face in the dim light.

"You don't need to fear thunder, Teddy," Teddy's dad explained, "Because every time you hear thunder, Lei Gong has taken down another bad guy."

There was another flash accompanied by another rumble of thunder, though Teddy's dad thought it sounded like the storm was finally moving away, and Teddy himself jumped just a little less this time. The five year old looked at his dad questioningly.

"See? Lei Gong just stopped another bad guy, Teddy," he commented with a small smile, "Nothing to be scared of."

Just then, the air conditioner came back to life as cool air started blowing throughout the house, causing Teddy to look on in wonder.

"I bet your nightlight's back on, too, now," Teddy's father commented, "You ready to go back to bed? You _do_ still have school tomorrow."

Teddy nodded, hopping lightly off of the couch.

Ruffling Teddy's hair, his dad started walking, "Alright. Let's go tuck you in."


	60. Apology

**Hey-o everyone! Here's the long awaited sequel one-shot to "Sorry", the chapter in which Emmy and Ace had their fight. Sorry for the update delay, but my sister was having surgery. She's home now, though, so we're all good. Also, WE BROKE 200 REVIEWS! WHOOOOOOOOOO! Seriously, though, that's amazing, and I know that I've said this a thousand times, but I never expected this story to get more than thirty, much less two-hundred, so thank you guys so much, that's amazing.**

**Continuing on, if you guys have any suggestions, constructive criticism or the like, feel free to leave them in the review section, since I'm always looking to improve and love incorporating you guys' ideas.**

**I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**-ROC6**

_Friday, April 2nd, 23 years after defeating Gaea_

Emmy followed the soft, crooning note towards the woods, leaving the warm glow of the campfire behind. She moved as silently as she could, glancing warily around the forest as the light from the bonfire, vibrant and bright as it shot higher and higher into the air, cast dancing shadows on the wispy, skeletal trees that quickly engulfed her. She crept silently through the woods, wary of any unwanted attention she could garner due to her heritage.

She followed the music, which was soft and slow, yet urgent, and listening to the melancholy melody made her feel as if her own heart was breaking. It wasn't long until she came to a clearing lit only by the moon and the stars. In the center of the clearing, someone had built up a small pile of rocks, probably for the last capture-the-flag game, and someone was perched upon it, forlornly strumming a guitar.

The young blonde recognized him immediately. She knew from his messy hair and tan skin. She knew from the strength with which he held himself, even though he seemed to be feeling lower than Asphodel. She knew from his old, worn guitar, and the natural ease with which he held it as his fingers danced forlornly across the strings. She knew from his voice, and the way it held the music, less a creator of the song than something simply channeling an ancient magic. She knew, within an instant, that it was Ace.

He sang softly, tenderly, his voice full of sorrow, and even from only two or three yards away, she had difficulty making out what he was singing, though the notes were strong and defined. She stood silently at the end of the clearing, trepidation singing in her veins as she listened to the song. She knew this was private to him, and that she had no right to listen in, and yet she couldn't make herself leave. She hadn't spoken to him in roughly three weeks, and it made her ache to be near him all the more painful to see him sitting there, completely unaware of her presence. But she couldn't make herself leave. It felt so good just to be in his company, to be near him again after a few haggard weeks of separation, that she knew she couldn't leave. Not yet, anyway.

With no nearby sounds besides his singing and her breathing, even if her thoughts sounded ear-shatteringly loud, she could make out what he was singing.

"_We ran together, laughed together, while everyone else was falling behind,_

_We swam together, danced together, and you were the only thought on my mind._

_You were a falcon, soaring high, brave and fierce and strong,_

_And I was on the ground, content to run along._"

Emmy could hear his sorrow in his voice as he sang, staring into the sky and watching the stars, and she knew without a doubt that he was singing about her. Him and her. Just how it had always been. It pulled at her heart, but she forced herself to maintain her iron mask, if for no other reason than that she was scared of what would happen should she let his words sink in.

"_You were always flying so high, dreaming so big, that I thought,_

_There would never be enough room on the Earth_

_And you'd go flying in the stars, going far, far, far._

_Me? I was content just staying by the ground, watching you soar higher as you stayed aloft,_

_But then you crashed in a bright, bright blaze, your eyes no longer glowing with mirth._

_And I knew you'd want to climb back up and leave me again, flying for the sky and your dreams and everything in between._

_I couldn't let you leave, I was afraid you'd be the same, that you'd leave me and never come back._

_So I did a terrible thing;_

_I grabbed your wings, and I held you down, even though I always knew you weren't meant for the ground,_

_And always feared for when you wouldn't be around._"

He kept singing, and she hung onto his every word, knowing he was channeling how he felt about her, and their relationship, and the world as a whole into the song. She knew he was always best at communicating through music, a trait he'd inherited from his father. She could hear his regrets, his frustrations, his sorrows and all he felt channeled through the song, and her eyes were burning knowing that she'd caused him so much turmoil. She wanted to close the gap between them, and take him in her arms and apologize for causing him so much pain. She wanted to look into his mismatched eyes, and see the exasperated smile he got when she told him about another stupid way to change the world, even though it seemed what needed to change wasn't the world. It was her.

She knew he needed someone by his side, someone to help him up the way he helped up her, but she couldn't bring herself to take the step closer and apologize. She missed him-gods, how she missed him-but listening to his heart as he spread it out for the world to hear, she knew she couldn't. Things wouldn't be the same between them, and she didn't want to hurt him more.

Ace continued singing, his voice haunting as the words drifted out, almost as if by accident,

"_It used to be just you and I against the world, burning down the world for a day,_

_Dancing in the surf and running through the woods, and I can still see your smile._

_The best of friends, we would test fate and be together just 'cause,_

_And I haven't seen you in a while, but you're so different I hardly recognize you._

_It's my own fault, I guess, I held you down,_

_But is it so bad to always want you to be around?_

_And I'm sorry I ever restrained you, but there's nothing I can do but sit here wishing we could start anew._

_Wishing we could start anew…_

"_We used to run together, laugh together, while everyone else was falling behind,_

_We used to swim together, dance together, and you were the only thought on my mind._

_You were a falcon, soaring high, brave and fierce and strong,_

_And I was on the ground, content to run along._

_Until one day, when you came to the ground, and I couldn't bear to not have you around._

_So I grabbed your wings and I held you down._

_Why'd I ever grab your wings and hold you down._"

Ace drifted off as the music softened, his voice breaking on the last phrase, and she knew his song had ended. She wanted so badly to go and hug him and promise to make everything better and it filled her bones with a hollow ache knowing that she couldn't, but she was too emotionally charged right now, and she knew that he was, too. So she slowly left the clearing, and left Ace sitting alone in the woods, hoping to meet up in a day or two to talk. Hoping they could discuss everything, and spread it out in the open to heal. She knew, though, that she was too physically and emotionally drained and unstable at the moment, and it would only hurt them in the long run if she were to rush into that conversation without collecting her thoughts to clear the air. So she left, glad that Ace hadn't realized she was there.

And as he heard her soft footsteps retreating into the woods, he felt a single, crystalline tear slide down his cheek, knowing that she'd been so close and walked away from him, just like everyone else had. But he knew his Emily, and he knew she'd come find him when she was ready, and that everything would be okay.


	61. Three in the Gods-Forsaken Morning

**Hi. Sorry I'm late. Lack of inspiration, and all that. *nervous laughter* But seriously, I was working on a really long chapter for you peeps, but then I realized I definitely wouldn't get it done anywhere close to soon, so I figured I'd better get something posted for you all to enjoy, and thus this was born. Yeah. I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome.**

**Also, THIS CHAPTER MENTIONS ALCOHOL. Juts thought I should warn you, in case any of you guys can't handle that. And if you can't understand Lily's dialogue, let me know and I'll make it clearer.**

**-ROC6**

_Saturday, January 12th, 25 years after defeating Gaea_

Emitting a long moan, the teenage girl rolled heavily to the other side of her bed, bending a pillow around her head, trying to block out the sound that had disturbed her slumber.

There was another loud buzz, and she flopped on her back, the pillow she was holding tossed onto the floor.  
Something buzzed again, and she couldn't endure the aggravating noise any longer. She tried to slap her hand on her nightstand, but she missed, and her hand ended up casting around in the air for a few moments until her hand collided with the table. She muttered a curse, pulling her hand against her chest for a moment as she nursed the appendage, before reaching out for the nightstand, along with the offending noise, this time more careful. Her hand brushed the top of her table, fishing around for a few moments until she found where she left her Flame to charge before she'd gone to bed.

She grabbed it, pulling it towards her. The teen turned it on, deactivating sleep mode, then immediately held her right hand up to shield her face, dialing back the brightness until it didn't burn her eyes as the only light source in the room. Squinting and blinking spots from her eyes, she made out the display that Lily Tanaka wanted to face chat.

"What?" she snapped, answering the call, moaning as she did so, "What could you possibly need? It's three in the gods-forsaken morning. Three in the morning, I was trying to sleep-"

"I kisshed a girhl," Lily interrupted, her voice breaking.

Suddenly awake, the other teen sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes. She peered at the display on her phone, which showed her friend. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she was wearing heavy makeup, which was smeared in a mess all over her face. Her hair, which had probably been styled in some fancy, fashionable knot, was disheveled, locks of it having fallen loose and some of it just plain sticking out, having given up on doing anything reasonable. Her earrings were fancy, long, silvery dangly things, thought ear_ring_ would be more appropriate, since one was missing. Her lips were swollen, too, and judging by the slur in her speech, she was drunk. Overall, she looked like a mess, even if Lily's head was the only thing visible on the tiny phone screen.

Taking in her friend's appearance in nothing more than a heartbeat, Belle asked, "_What_ were you doing?"

Shifting uncomfortably in front of her phone, revealing a low cut lavender neckline for a moment, she answered nervously, "I was ah a parny. I jus' ga 'ome."

"How did your mom not catch you?" the legacy of Jupiter asked absently, her mind sorting through a thousand thoughts at once.

Lily's eyes flashed, and she actually sounded semi-sober for a moment, "She'sh on a date. Prolaby wone be back un'il noon at 'e earliest."

Taking a deep breath, Belle nodded, "Okay. How did this happen?"

"I, uh," the other legacy of Aphrodite had the heart to look guilty, "I wush drin'ing. A lot. Ih wus a reayee, reayee awesome par'y, you shoulda seen all the guysh there. Ih wus wild, you wouda hayed it. Ahnyway, I jus' kine a walked up to 'er and kished her. She kished me 'ack."

"Did your boyfriend see?" Belle queried, still running ideas through her mind, "'Cause if he did-"

"He din't see," Lily cut her off, somewhat bitterly, "He doen't care 'bout me. I kissed some 'oo 'ozen guys, 'e doesn' care."

"Alright, that's good," Belle winced, "Poor choice of words, but it _is_ a good thing he didn't see you."

"But I lied it," Lily replied, her eyes wide and childlike, "Belle, I kissed uh gurl an' I _liked ih._"

Belle froze, surprised, then blinked once, twice, "Look, Lily, there's nothing wrong with you being lesbian-"

"Nope," Lily popped the 'p', trying to ignore the fact that she was hanging onto Belle's every word, pretending that she was calm and collected rather than having a drunken meltdown in the middle of the night.

"There's nothing wrong with you being bisexual," Belle amended, a smile playing on the corners of her lips, despite the situation, "If that is what you are. It's perfectly fine, Lily, it doesn't change who you are, whether you like guys or girls or both. Don't be afraid to explore this."

"Buh," Lily hesitated, still looking vaguely childlike and more open than Belle had seen her in a long while, "Wha' wilw e'ryone elce thing?"

"It doesn't matter," Belle stated.

"Buh-"

"It doesn't matter," Belle reiterated firmly, startling the other girl, then commented with a teasing smile, not overly harshly, "Now will you shut up already? I don't feel like repeating myself anymore since I already know you won't remember this conversation in the morning."

Lily tried to frown, but ended up smiling anyway, then emitted a giggle that made Belle suspicious that she'd done other things besides drinking, "Okay, bye!"

"'Night," Belle replied with a yawn, "Enjoy your hangover tomorrow."

"Wha'-" Belle hung up on Lily's confused expression.

She then turned her phone off, blinking at the now unfamiliar darkness, and spent a few moments allowing her eyes to adjust to the murky blackness. She carefully set her phone down, making sure that it did, in fact, land on the table, then rolled over in her bed, deciding to ignore the fact that one of her pillows was currently living on the floor a few feet from her bed. Methodically, she shut her mind off, trying to prepare herself for a good sleep for the rest of the night. She knew that if Lily was this distraught while she was excessively drunk (possibly among other things), then come sobriety she'd be freaking out ten times worse. As a result, Belle knew that today was going to be a long day, and she figured she'd better rest up. Especially since Lily had gotten her up at three in the gods-forsaken morning.


	62. Laughter

**Greetoids, residents of Earth. As an FYI, I'd like to inform you guys that my education will be resuming soon, but I will do what I can to continue reasonable updates. Yeah. Also, once again, thank you guys for breaking 200 reviews. My mind=blown. Uh, other than that I don't actually have that much to say, so I hope you guys enjoy, and stay awesome. **

**-ROC6**

_Saturday, July 31st, 21 years after defeating Gaea_

The first time it happened, Leo Valdez thought nothing of it. He had been walking through the living room on his way to the kitchen. He was in desperate search for Calypso so as to tell her before she discovered on her own that he had accidentally blown up her favorite rose bush. The bush bloomed white and they'd gotten it when they'd gotten married, so it's destruction would spell the immediate end of one Repair Boy. The bush, thankfully, was still salvageable. Probably. He hoped.

Regardless, he'd been walking through the living room, where Ava, a year round daughter of Aphrodite, and his youngest daughter, Ember, were lounging on the couch. They were playing on Ember's phone, it seemed, both crowding around the screen with rapt interest. They paid him no heed as he passed through the room, but they started giggling to each other the instant he left the room.

He thought nothing of it, though, and continued on his way. He pasted an impish grin on his face as he approached his wife, "Hey, Sunshine."

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

The second time it happened, Leo started to grow suspicious. After a lecture from his wife ("Leo Valdez, you idiot, why is it always _my_ stuff you blow up?"), he'd been instructed by his to go finish whatever he was building, and it had to be absolutely amazing whatever it was. Otherwise, she'd made it quite clear he'd be sleeping on the couch. For a year. So he was passing through the living room, since it was the quickest way to the forge.

His daughter and her friend were still playing on Ember's phone on the couch, the TV playing some cartoon in the background that neither of them were paying attention to. They were giggling before he walked into the room, stopped completely once he entered, then started right back up again once he left. That was totally a coincidence, right?

**-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-**

The third time it happened, Leo was pretty sure they were laughing at him. He'd been going to the kitchen for a snack, since it had been at least an hour since his wife had banished him to the forge and he had seriously doubted she was still in there. Thankfully, she wasn't. He took the quickest route from the forge to the kitchen, which happened to be through the living room. Ember and Ava were completely quiet when he entered, then once he exited, they started giggling.

He grabbed the half a dozen ginger cookies he'd gone to the kitchen for-Calypso was a goddess in the kitchen-then walked back to the living room, where the laughter immediately stopped, with the exception of a few wayward snorts.

"_Hola, mi hija_," _Hello, my daughter. _He greeted his youngest, walking up behind the couch and giving Ava a nod.

Ember giggled a little, bending her head backwards to look up at his face with a goofy smile, "_Hola, Papi_."

"What have you and Ava been up to?" he asked before he not-so-subtly shoved an entire cookie in his mouth.

"Nothing," she assured him, color rising to her cheeks.

"Are you sure?" he prodded, "Because I've been hearing a lot of giggling coming from over here."

"I'm sure, _Papi_," she promised.

Walking around from of the couch, Leo put his remaining four cookies on the coffee table, "Come on, you're talking to _the_ Hot Stuff, Leo Valdez, Super Sized McShizzle and Bad Boy Supreme. I can take it."

Ember and Ava exchanged looks, then Ember relented, "Alright, Dad, but don't flip out."

"Me? Flip out?" he made a _pft_ sound, "Like that would ever happen."

Cautiously, Ember held out her phone, "We were browsing that comic website-you know, HalfFunny?- and we started looking up memes on the Seven from the Second Giant War. You're, like, tied with Percy for most popular."

Then, as an afterthought, she added, "Everyone seems to hate Jason, though."

Leo started scrolling through the various memes and images and stuff, most of which he'd seen before. They were all poking fun at how he'd acted as a teenager, which, granted, was pretty much how he acted now, according to pretty much everyone he knew. Actually, now that Leo thought about it, he hadn't changed much except for the fact that he was now running a garage, his awesome girlfriend had become his awesome wife, and he had three extra mouths to feed.

Alright, he admitted to himself, maybe that qualified as "a lot" changing, but still. He saw some of the images on the website, and couldn't help laughing himself.

Sitting down on the couch next to his daughter, he started scrolling through the website, "If you think that's great, you should see these memes of your mother..."

The back door opened causing Leo to jump off the couch with a gulp. He scrambled to grab his cookies and exit, only to realize his cookies were gone.

"Hey," he glared childishly at the two youths in front of him, "Which one of you-"

Calypso shouted from the back room, "Leo Valdez, if that's you out of your forge before your project is gone-"

The Latino man scrambled backwards out of the room and towards his forge, having come to the tough decision that his life was worth more than a few cookies.

As he left, Ava smirked at his retreating form, brushing crumbs off herself, "Thanks for the cookies!"


End file.
